


Sand to Snow

by OurLadyOfRebellion



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Race Changes, Cinderella Elements, Dubious Consent, F/F, F/M, Game of Thrones-esque, M/M, Multi, Murder Husbands, a/b/o dynamics, alpha kings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-06-16 01:25:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 30,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15425979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OurLadyOfRebellion/pseuds/OurLadyOfRebellion
Summary: Fantasy AU where Kylo Ren and Armitage Hux are alpha warrior kings of Arkanis in the north who decide to join forces and marry Rey, an omega from the south lands of Jakku for alliance and trade. But she's not what they were expecting.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I made Rey a brown skinned woman since she's from the desert in my fantasy land. She was starved and overworked as a child servant/slave under Unkar Plutt who keeps a harem. Also, there's some dub con. Some biting. A lot of gay stuff. Probably violence. And, eventually, some good old fashioned smut. Gonna try to update every 1 to 2 weeks. Thanks for reading!  
> 

Armitage regarded himself a final time in the burnished brass mirror. He may have changed his tunic once or twice in anticipation of his bride’s arrival, but promised himself he was being practical. Starting with his best foot forward. Not because he was nervous. It was an accident that his warrior’s braid looked especially more like raw gold against his one red cape. It wasn’t something he’d planned, certainly. And going to see the camp’s barber that morning was just because he was long overdue for a trim to his beard. It was a coincidence that it fell in time with his engagement day.

“If you change your clothes again I’ll leave.”

Armitage looked over his shoulder at Kylo. “I was beginning to worry your drinking would keep you in bed. Rinse your mouth out. You smell terrible.”

Kylo continued to stare from their camp bed, watching Armitage begin to lace his vambraces. The warrior king preparing for a new kind of battle before him stood in stark contrast to the man who had mewled under him the night before. And yet, he was the same man.

“It was your ass my mouth was on last night.” Kylo coughed.

“My ass doesn’t smell or taste like crude ale.” Armitage shot over his shoulder. He regarded Kylo again through pale lashes. “And I bathed last night.” The ‘for you’ lingering just out of reach.

Kylo hauled himself out of bed. Naked, with his dark hair tangled down his back, he made his way to the bowl of water on his sideboard. He began washing his face and armpits. Armitage appeared behind him, beginning to rake a carved horn comb through Kylo’s hair.

“I wish you’d just take a bath,” he grumbled as he started to braid Kylo’s hair.

“I want her to be able to smell me.”

“That’s not the only way to an Omega’s heart, you know.”

“It worked on you.”

“An alpha being able to tolerate another alpha’s scent is not the same thing.” Armitage tied off Kylo’s braid with a scrap of black cloth. “Your clothes are there. Get dressed. We need to look like the kings we claim to be. Southerners care about this sort of thing.”

“Only because they have the weather to warrant it.” Kylo looked through what Armitage had set aside for him. A black tunic with gold thread through the collar and black leather breeches. “Will I look as pretty as you today?”

Armitage regarded his future king with a coy smile. “You wish.”

“The caravan approaches, my lords.” Mitaka called from the front of their tent.

“Make ready,” Armitage called back. He was regarding the small portrait carved into an ivory plaque that they’d received almost six moons ago. A crown of curls over small eyes and a slightly square face. Plump lips and a long but rounded nose. He had this face memorized by now, but today it would materialize in his camp.

“What if she’s ugly?” Kylo scoffed, pulling his breeches up over his thighs.

“I assure you she’s not.”

“You think that little carving is really her?”

“Given the gold we’re paying, it had better be. We just need to put her with child a few times, anyway. I’m sure we’ll manage.”

Kylo wrapped an arm around Armitage’s waist and sniffed against his neck. Armitage pretended it didn’t make him want to crawl back into their bed. “I’ll certainly manage,” Kylo rumbled into his ear, “with you next to her.”

***

Rey took in the valley below the steep path of her riding party as she guided her mount on foot. Today she met her husbands. Kings. Two alpha warlords who’d banded together instead of tearing each other apart. Not that they hadn’t tried. There was the red northman, Armitage of Hux. And the dark tyrant of the east, Kylo Ren. The two men had served under Snoke, and when he died without an heir, his two most favored men had taken to each other’s throats. Now, apparently, they took to each other’s beds.

Rey turned to Rose, the beta handmaid _gifted_ to her by Unkar Plutt who'd been teaching her how to be a lady on their journey to Arkanis. Rose had easily become a friend. “I still don’t understand how this is supposed to work.”

“Making heirs doesn't require much work, my lady” Rose spoke absently from behind Rey’s shoulder. A habit Rose kept to show deference to her new lady. "I could tell you some things if you'd really like to know, but as an omega it's accepted that you'll simply lay there."

Rey grinned and reached for Rose’s hand, pulling her in step beside her.

“No, that part I understand. It’s the... part to get there I’m confused about. I’ve seen alphas fight over my kind. Won’t they just want to kill each other again?”

“Well, if they do,” Rose grinned mischievously, “then we can just leave.” Rey chuckled at that.

Jakku was arid and vast, but the best oases had been claimed and the desert clans fought fiercely to protect them. Unkar Plutt had turned his eyes north. Making good with these two mountain kings would mean access to wood, metal, and most importantly, water. Rey had just been a thing in Plutt’s great collection of things. A chest of fragrant wood. A store of emeralds. An omega. Precious silk.

Her parents had traded her for passage across the blistering sands and never looked back. She started as a sand rat, keeping the stables clean and watering the horses. And then, at nearly 16 years, a very late bloomer thanks to a diet of scraps and less water than what the horses got, she found herself being hauled into the locked gates of Unkar Plutt’s harem to keep her from distracting the alphas in his ranks, and Plutt himself. Rey had been terrified that Plutt would come to claim her, but the ugly old merchant was clever. An unclaimed omega was a bargaining chip. Plutt kept her around, biding his time while Rey made herself useful in the harem. Omegas were not too rare in the desert, where war was determined by how many horses and men you could keep from dying from thirst. But the constant wars over territory in the north had dwindled their number. When the time came, thanks to the news along the trade routes, Plutt made his move. Plutt had done well to make his offer of an omega, and access to southern trade, something no northern family could offer, before war could break out again. That was seven moons ago, and now Rey found herself once again being gifted over to suit someone else’s survival.

Plutt had his women dress her in silk and jewels and carted north, sending a retinue of about 30 armed beta men and hired beta guides, choosing to keep himself and most of his men from harm should the northmen fail to keep their end of the bargain. A guide named Poe and one of Plutt’s beta men, Finn, lead them north. But now that she was free from Plutt’s harem, and with no alpha’s in their party, Rey decided to take advantage of the few weeks of freedom between Jakku and the mountains. She’d shed her silks and veil for the sun bleached linen she was used to wearing while she worked in the desert.

There was a litter with embroidered curtains and cushions Plutt had sent along to present Rey, but even if Rey had felt like dressing up again, there was no maneuvering the gaudy thing down the narrow trail into the valley. The mountain kings of Arkanis had chose well.

“Clever,” Poe had said.  
“They could bottleneck us at the bottom.” Finn added. “Pick us off one by one with archers. Wouldn’t even need to draw their swords.”

So Rey had slipped off her tawny mare and started picking her way down the path with everyone else, hoping it wasn't to a flock of well aimed arrows. They descended into the valley below and were greeted with the smell of campfires and horses and men. Once they were on even ground again, Poe rode forward, Finn at his side. There was a very tall blonde woman and a shorter man with dark hair who greeted them with stern faces. Both wore bulky northern armor made from metal. And they were both pale. Rey stared at them. It hadn’t occurred to her before that she’d be around so many pale faces in the north. And blondes. And reds. There was one blonde woman back in Plutt’s harem. Her people were from the north, but the woman herself had been born in the desert. Rey was the color of burnt sugar, like most desert people, with dark brown hair that curled from root to ends that were lighter, bleached from the Jakku sun, and seemed to have a personality of their own. Rey had wrangled her curls into two braids with Rose’s help, which she wrapped around her head to keep off her neck while they rode. She wondered if she’d get the chance to bathe and change before being presented to her future alphas.

One of the northmen was showing Poe and Finn where they could set up camp. Rey was due for her heat in the next week or so, the next full moon, and that’s when she’d be married off. If she was in heat, she’d be less likely to give her new alphas any trouble. Finn was to confirm she’d been mated and then he'd return with the gold and promises of safe passage to the North for Plutt. It’s not that Rey hadn’t thought about running off. But she didn’t know the north. She’d survived on the fringes of Plutt’s oasis. Even the harem was it's own kind of survival. But not in total wilderness. And when she learned she was an omega she’d been more concerned with evading Plutt than anything else. Scents be damned, Plutt was a brutal and greedy merchant. She was glad to be away and take her chances with the mountain kings.

Some of the northmen volunteered to help them settle in, speaking haltingly in the old trade language they all shared. Rey, finding it easy to settle into the routine of doing something with her hands, started unlacing rolls of tent canvas and checking them for wear and tear while Rose saw to their things. She was helping a group of southerners and northerners drape the canvas over a set of poles when she bumped into one of the northmen.

“I’m sorry,” she’d said.

“It’s no- Oh. Oh!” He’d started sniffing at her. Rey instantly backed away and started looking for Poe or Finn. The alpha turned to the northman next to him. “I think that’s her. Unless they brought another one with them.”

The other northman took Rey in, head to toe, and then went back to his work. A beta, then. “Let her alone. Or we’ll never get them set up.”

The first man stepped a few paces forward, “I just want to say ‘hello’,” he crooned.

Suddenly Rey felt a small hand on her chest. Rose had stepped in front of her, shiny black hair right under Rey’s chin. “You’ve said your hello, so be on your way!”

The alpha barked laughter. “They make them feisty in the South, eh?”

“Silence!” The tall blonde woman seemed to suddenly appear behind the advancing alpha. “Get him out of here,” she commanded to some of the onlookers who’d caught sight of the altercation. Her voice was obeyed immediately, the man pulled instantly away. Another alpha. She strode up to Rey, her armor gleaming. Rey could almost see her face in the breast plate. Rose kept herself planted as the woman gave an audible sniff. “You have no need to bare your pretty little teeth at me,” she purred at Rose. “I’m not interested in your...gift.”

Rey felt Rose relax a bit when the woman kept her distance.

“Why are there so many alphas in your camp?” Rose asked, cocking her head to the side.

“They make for better soldiers. Although that one will have to revisit our standards of discipline,” the woman sneered in the direction the man had been taken off to. The woman then outstretched her hand, palm up. “I am Commander Phasma. You can simply refer to me as Commander. I serve under Armitage of Hux.”

“Rose. Of Hays Minor.” Rose clasped Phasma’s wrist in the trade greeting, her own wrist engulfed in Phasma’s hand.

“Ah, from the south peninsulas. Welcome to Arkanis.”

“You’ve heard of my people?” Rose’s voice turned bright.

“I’ve never been able to venture there myself,” Phasma smiled. “But I’ve heard stories. And this must be the omega.” Phasma offered her hand to Rey. Rey took it.

“Yes,” she said, staring up into Phasma’s blue eyes. “Rey of Jakku.” This was the closest she'd ever been to an alpha who wasn't Unkar Plutt since her first heat.

“Indeed,” Phasma intoned, glancing over Rey’s dusty linen tunic and trousers. “You have my word and the word of my...kings,” Phasma sighed the word, “that you’ll be safe in our camp. But all the same, my men are not used to having an omega around. So perhaps you ought to make yourself scarce until tonight's feast.” Phasma turned to go, undoubtedly busy negotiating space and supplies for the newcomers, but Rey wasn’t ready to just be holed up.

“Wait,” Rey followed Phasma. “Could I maybe be put somewhere, a little more secluded? I’m not used to being inside all day." Even the harem had a garden.

Phasma turned around and gave Rey another once over. She wished these northerners would stop doing that.

“Does Plutt let his prized omegas run wild in the sand?” Rey wasn’t sure what to say to that. “Prize” was not a word she’d use in regards to herself. “Nevermind,” Phasma continued. “There’s a clearing to the east where you can set camp. It’s downstream, though. So you’ll have to send someone else for fresh water at the trailhead.”

“That’s fine,” Rey smiled. A stream. “That’s perfect.”

***

“What do you mean he ‘went after her’?” Kylo barked at Mitaka.

“My lord, we didn’t know she’d be...out.” Mitaka had come a long way in putting up with Kylo’s temper, but he still sweat under his gaze. “If we’d known she’d be roaming freely, I would’ve instructed our alphas to stay in our camp.”

Kylo huffed. He knew this was a terrible idea. They should’ve chosen a beta from one of the northern houses and left it at that.

“Where is she now?” Kylo growled. He was already heading outside. Waiting for Armitage to return from overseeing preparations was becoming taxing, but Kylo had no interest in accompanying. Mitaka followed him into the midday sun. He needed to see for himself that she was far enough away. He hadn’t even met her yet and already he felt...protective.

“Commander Phasma has relocated the omega and her maid to the smaller eastern clearing, with the two beta leaders from their camp.” Kylo bristled. He was still getting used to how much control Armitage had given Phasma. She regularly made decisions without their input. “She’s smart and she’s loyal,” Armitage had said. “Let her work for us.”

“Take me to her,” Kylo gestured brusquely at Mitaka. “Now.” Mitaka was smart and loyal, too. But he was much better at showing deference. Perhaps that was the beta in him. Kylo strode next to Mitaka trying not to out pace him. The men cooking, training, and cleaning their armor outside their tents stood and saluted, fists to their chests and heads bowed, as he stomped through the camp. Kylo wasn’t one to be around his soldiers much outside of battle. He picked up the pace, longsword creaking at his hip, and Mitaka struggled to keep up.

They hit the creek bed that lined their camp to the east, flowing against steep rocky cliffs and then south until the tents of his men thinned out. A spread of trees dotted the end of the camp and under them were two off white tents and three horses. The maid, Kylo assumed from her dusty clothes, was toweling down a tawny mare. Kylo lumbered in her direction, braid swishing down his back. Mitaka began to say something but Kylo brushed him off. He stopped a tree or two away, one leg propped to the side in the short grass with a hand on the pommel of his sword, and waited until the brown girl noticed him.

“I wish to greet your lady and welcome her to my camp,” he said flatly, when she looked into his face. Hazel eyes that seemed to glitter under long black lashes and two thick braids piled on her head. Much like his mother would wear. He pushed the thought aside. Armitage wouldn’t approve of him making eyes at the servant girl of their new wife. The woman seemed to freeze as she looked at him. Then there was movement from one of the tents and another woman appeared. Shorter, with glossy black hair tied away from her round face and almond eyes.

“I wish to greet your lady,” Kylo repeated with annoyance. Perhaps they didn’t speak the trade language.

The smaller woman gestured for the brown skinned girl to come forward. She walked around the horse, rubbing her hands on the sides of her tunic. The smaller woman gave a practiced little bow, palms facing up in a peaceful gesture.

“I am Rose Tico of Hays Minor, my lord,” the smaller woman said with some back bone in her voice, though she kept her eyes down. “And this is my lady, Rey. Of Jakku. Sent from High Merchant Unkar Plutt.” The brown girl copied the bow, albeit with a bit less grace.

As if on cue, a small breeze blew up across the grass and tickled its way across Kylo’s face. He could smell sunshine, but not the sun from overhead. A brighter, warmer sun. And spice. And honey. And-

“You’re the omega.” The words tumbled from his mouth. And then, “but you’re a servant.” Kylo’s eyes narrowed in confusion.

Rose was suddenly between them. “My lord,” she started, still not making eye contact. Perhaps it was a practice from the peninsula. “Please understand, my lady presented very late in life. If Merchant Plutt had-”

“I have half a mind to send you both back to him,” he snarled. Of course. Of course some southern upstart would trick them like this. Armitage just wouldn’t listen. Kylo’s grip on his sword tightened. “Mitaka! Go get my bloody husband!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm starting to think I should've written a prologue. But I just really want to get to the sex. Behold, my smut struggle is real.  
> Also, I'm going to be stealing a lot of Game of Thrones tropes, because why not?  
> Thanks for your kudos and comments!  
> (awkward finger guns)

Armitage walked into the clearing on Mitaka’s heels, Phasma following closely behind him, ensuring they weren’t followed by any of his men just yet. He signaled to them to wait as he went ahead. Kylo stood leaning against a tree, arms crossed, simmering. As Armitage drew closer he could smell a burnt aroma wafting off him. Anger. Displeasure. Confusion. It had been sometime since Kylo had smelled like that. But there was still something that smelled a little sweet under all the smoke. Armitage greeted Kylo with a hand to his shoulder, but the slightly taller man shrugged him off.

“Fucking Plutt’s playing with us,” he hissed. Armitage’s eyes narrowed and he briefly wrinkled his nose. “See for yourself,” Kylo growled low as he threw an arm out at the two tents under the afternoon sun, never taking his eyes off them. The two beta men who had lead the caravan stood at the entrance of one tent. The darker one stepped forward.

“We don’t want any trouble. We followed Plutt’s orders, but we can’t let you hurt her.”

Armitage cocked his head, taken aback. But then he breathed deeply and looked over his shoulder at Kylo. The true source of their fear.

Armitage stood up as straight as he could, holding his hands behind his back. “That’s not why I’m here.” He laced as much reassurance into his voice as he could muster. “There may have been a misunderstanding. Perhaps the lady can explain.” The two men stepped aside after trading short glances and Armitage called out, “My lady, if you’d please do me the honor of showing yourself.” He considered going into the tent, but wanted to keep a clear head. Whoever she was, she was still an omega.

First a shorter woman came out, followed closely behind by a taller, browner one. Both in dirty traveling clothes.

“My lord,” the short one began. But Armitage threw up a gloved hand. 

“Let us put aside formalities for now,” he said, letting soft command edge his words. “Unkar Plutt promised my representatives he was sending us an unmated omega of good pedigree,” he noticed the brown young woman wince at the word, but he continued, “who would bare our children in exchange for access to the merchants of Jakku. Was any of that a falsehood?”

“My lord, if you would-” the short woman was resistant to his voice. He made note of that. No wonder she’d been sent to speak for the omega. But the taller one interrupted her.

“Rose,” she said, “Please. There’s no point.” She stepped forward, hazel eyes low over a smattering of dark freckles. She came up to his chin. Tall for an omega. But he couldn’t see much else about her under her traveling clothes. And then he could smell her. Like honey and spices. Something he used to eat as a child. Warm and so fragrant. He found himself stepping forward but quickly played it off by walking around her in a slow circle. Pedigree or not, Armitage could already imagine his mouth on her skin.

Her hair was braided up and he could easily see the smooth, soft skin on either side of her throat and just at the beginning of her back. No marks. That was easily verified, at least. And even if she had lain with a beta at some point, the chances that she’d been with child were negligible. Armitage didn’t care about that. Though he knew Kylo would. Her face was a bit square, like the carving still sitting in his tent. And she certainly wasn’t ugly. He would like to see her with her hair down, but that could come later. He paused. Her scent was changing, becoming more sweet. Part of her was enjoying being inspected by an alpha, though her eyes were still wary. He wondered what she could smell of him as his mouth began to water. Armitage now saw why Kylo kept his distance, but his eyes on the tent.

“Who are you?” Armitage asked.

***

The raven haired alpha had suddenly appeared between the few trees in the clearing, demanding to speak with her. She knew immediately who he must be. Then she wondered if the famed and feared Kylo Ren was the tallest man she’d ever seen. His face sported a scar that ran from his forehead to somewhere under the gold embroidered collar of his fresh black tunic. His long face was framed by dark waves that hung over his ears. But when he turned to yell for his husband, Rey saw the long, thick braid that swayed down his back to his waist. She had demurred as Rose had instructed her on their journey north, but Rey had only gotten the barest whiff of something sweet and roasted, like sugar thrown on a campfire, before the smell of him turned to ash in her mouth.

_But you’re a servant._

Unkar Plutt had swindled another customer.

And then, for better or worse, Finn and Poe had walked into the clearing. They had been speaking happily about something, smiles glowing on both their faces when they saw the alpha pacing as he awaited Armitage of Hux. Kylo turned on them, seizing Finn by the shirt as Poe frantically tried to wedge himself between them.

“Did you know about this?”, he’d bellowed. “Did you think you could bring us a serving girl when we paid for a queen?”

His burnt, smoky smell was like a skittish horse, frantically in need of reassurance. Rey was already walking up behind Kylo, could almost feel the words “alpha, please” leave her lips, but Rose had gratefully pulled her back to their tent.

“Let him cool off out there,” she’d said, before muttering “men” under her breath. 

Eventually a tenuous calm fell over the clearing. Rey sat cross legged on her pallet while Rose rummaged through the trunks Plutt had sent along for her. Now that Rey could think, her mind skipped over the paths in front of her. If she wasn’t what the mountain kings wanted, what would they do? Keep her as a servant? A concubine? Due payment for Plutt’s dishonesty? Did they even have harems in the north? Or would they send her back? Would she have to have her heat out in the wilderness, putting the whole caravan at risk? Would they leave her behind, like her parents? Barter with her?

“Rey. Rey?” Rose’s face solidified in front of her nose.

“Sorry?” Rey swallowed down the knot of uncertainty that had crept up her throat.

“What do you want to wear tonight? Green? Red? I think the red would make the best first impression. But you’d look so good in the green.” Rose held a length of emerald silk up to Rey’s face. “Brings out your eyes.”

“I don’t think we’ll be feasting tonight,” Rey sighed. “His majesty Kylo Ren seems unhappy about his purchase. I doubt King Armitage will disagree.”

“Pfft,” Rose huffed. “He’s an alpha, Rey. They both are. Now that you’re here, they won’t be able to let you go.” Rose gave a sheepish grin. “I’m sure this was Plutt’s plan all along.”

But before Rey could ask what she meant, she heard the timbre of a calm but commanding voice in the clearing.

“Perhaps the lady can explain,” it said.

“That’s our cue,” Rose grinned impishly. “Remember, let me do the talking.”

Rey followed Rose out of the tent, doing her best to keep her eyes down, trying to make herself into the small, timid omega for which these alphas had paid in gold. Kylo Ren was smoke and sugar, but Armitage Hux was like being shocked awake with cold water. His scent was crisp and clear, even in the warm glow of the afternoon sun. Rey shivered and hoped he didn’t see it. She stole a glance and saw a pale man with hair like gold in a fire pulled tightly away from his face into a braid over his shoulder. A short beard of the same color glinting on his face. Almost as tall as Kylo Ren, but somewhat thinner. Toned and efficient where Kylo had been broad and threatening.

“My lord,” Rose began. But Armitage threw up a gloved hand. 

“Let us put aside formalities for now,” he said in a way that made Rey hang on every word. “Unkar Plutt promised my representatives he was sending us an unmated omega of good pedigree,” Rey clenched her jaw at that, “who would bare our children in exchange for access to the merchants of Jakku. Was any of that a falsehood?”

“My lord, if you would-” Rey had no idea how Rose was able to sidestep his question when her own mind was ready to tell this alpha whatever he wanted to know. This was only going to end badly, Rey thought. May as well pull the bandage off.

“Rose,” she said, “Please. There’s no point.” Rey stepped past Rose. She was tired of this ruse.

He’d come closer to circle her, jewel blue eyes inspecting, a sweet and herbal smell drifting through the fabric of his perfectly white tunic told her he liked what he saw. Maybe Rose was right. Rose would beseech the kings to see Rey as the gift Plutt promised. But back in the desert, Plutt said she was a “waste of water”, a poor investment taking up space in his harem whenever Rey crossed his line of sight.

“Who are you?” the king asked.

But now, Unkar Plutt wasn’t here to tell her what she was or wasn’t. And while Rose was only trying to do her duty as a lady’s maid, Rey could smell the bitter discontent slowly wreathing its way around the tall, red headed alpha. Someone else’s polished words weren’t going to smooth this over. So Rey decided to speak for herself. Only she knew who she was.

“I am Rey of Jakku,” she began, feeling the cool ground under her. The warm sunlight on her face. She met his eyes. “I am an orphan. I was raised by no one. I have claim to nothing. I came of age in Unkar Plutt’s harem. I don’t know what his _lordship_ told you. But I was told I was being sent north to be married off to not one, but two alphas claiming to be the kings of the north. If that arrangement no longer pleases you,” she chanced a quick look at Kylo still looming over Armitage’s shoulder, “then I’ll gladly leave.” South. North. She’d do what she’d always done. Survive.

That elicited an arched eyebrow from him.

“And where would you go, Rey of Jakku?,” the alpha pressed. “Back to his _lordship_ Unkar Plutt’s harem?” Rey dug her nails into her palms. He knew she was at his mercy. He knew she knew. He was toying with her at this point. She could feel sweat creeping under her arms and down her back. Rey glared at him.

“Wherever my kings deem worthy to send me.” She hissed mockingly.

A fresh wave of sweet mint rolled off of the alpha. His face suddenly slack and the blue of his eyes seeming a shade darker in the slanting sunlight. He was taking deep breaths of whatever Rey’s body was doing to the air. Armitage took a slow step back.

“My lady,” he said. “I hope you will give me and my husband the honor of your company at tonight’s feast to welcome you and your caravan to Arkanis.”

“What?” Rey blinked.

Armitage turned to Rose. “Please ensure her ladyship is prepared for tonight.” He then gave a curt nod and turned to leave.

Rey watched him trade a few words with Kylo as he left the clearing, her mouth agape.

“Told you,” Rose whispered in a sing song voice somewhere on her peripheral. But Rey’s eyes were now locked with Kylo’s.

 

***

Kylo had to admit to himself, if to no one else, that watching Armitage prowl around Rey sent a rush of blood to his groin. But the girl hadn’t cowed. She’d bristled back. And that had kept the blood in his groin, much to his surprise. But then Armitage had asked her to join them that evening. They were feasting her arrival after all. Kylo clenched his teeth at that and made to protest as Armitage walked back towards him.

“Surely you can’t-”

“Not here, husband,” Armitage said. He was looking into the distance past Kylo’s shoulder. But not at Phasma or Mitaka. Not even the camp or the valley they’d claimed. He was looking into the future, ever the tactician, as he made his way back to the camp. Phasma falling in line behind him. Kylo looked away then. At first he saw Rey gaping at Armitage’s back, then she glared at him. He felt an urge to grab her by the neck and force her to kneel at Armitage’s feet, to thank him for his mercy. Instead he spat on the ground between them and stalked after his husband. To his chagrin, she didn’t flinch.

Back in their tent Armitage had reclined behind his desk. He insisted it be carted wherever he went. Kylo allowed himself one cup of wine before listing his protests.

“She’s a nobody. From nowhere. She’s nothing.”

“But not to me.” Armitage said simply.

“And she speaks to you like-”

“She spoke to me like you do.” Kylo all but rolled his eyes at that.

“Armitage.” Kylo accepted that he loved this man. He wanted to trust him. “What do you see with those pretty blue eyes of yours that I do not?” He watched as Armitage pulled his braid over his shoulder and twirled the end around his fingers. Something he’d only ever done when they were alone. Usually after they’d rutted each other into contentment. But his eyes were different. Less hooded and more clear.

“Potential.” Armitage answered. “Like the potential I saw in you when we were boys. But I fought it, then. That was a mistake. It put bloodshed between us and wasted time. We cannot waste time with Rey.”

“You think it’s too late to turn her back?” Kylo was starting to see what Armitage saw in their would be bride.

“Yes. If we send her back to Jakku, we could try for an alliance with a different southerner, one with an omega daughter, perhaps. A true tie. But who would help us after we broke faith with Plutt?” Armitage steepled his fingers in his lap. Kylo put his cup down and clutched the sword at his hip. He followed the thread Armitage had spun before him.

“And whichever northern houses who think they have a greater claim to Snoke’s throne than us will be on our heels while our noses are in the sand. At least once she’s pregnant, we can pacify the families that isolated themselves when Snoke couldn’t sire an heir. And while I don’t doubt the worst of them would cut down a mother and her child for power, no one would ally themselves with that kind of filth. They could never be trusted.”

Armitage nodded at Kylo’s words without looking up. “We knew she wasn’t going to be royalty.” he shrugged. “But she is still a foothold in the south. Plutt can be a stepping stone. He is not the only southerner with gold in the sand.”

Kylo looked at Armitage. The blue of his eyes were thin around his pupils. A thin sheen of sweat was drying on his brow.

“And you like the way she smells,” Kylo said, deciding on another cup of wine.

Armitage looked up at him then, mouth in a line. He swallowed thickly and Kylo huffed into his cup. Cold satisfaction in his assertion.

“Careful, Armitage. I would hate to see your personal interests overcome your better judgement.” Kylo meant to tease him, but it came out with more cruelty than he meant.

“Are you jealous?” Armitage’s voice was low but plaintive. Kylo stared at him over his cup. He hadn’t thought of that. He had figured that the heat of whatever omega Armitage selected for them would send them in to rut and then their nature would take over. And after children were born they could simply… avoid her. It hadn’t occurred to him that either of them would find themselves wanting more than that. He sipped his wine as he slowly came to stand behind his husband. He put his cup down on the desk. Armitage flinched.

“You’re on edge.” Kylo murmured. “Armitage of Hux, prodigal son of Arkanis, the man who slew his own father to serve under Snoke. Laid low by the scent of a Jakku sand rat.”

“If you do not want me to want her,” Armitage made to turn in his seat but Kylo took him by the braid, wrapping its length around his hand and slowly pulling until Armitage’s throat was exposed. “Tell me now and I will send her back.”

Kylo bent over Armitage, inhaling the icy clean scent of him. He let it soothe away what remained of his displeasure from their...interaction with Rey.

“You want her?” Kylo whispered in Armitage’s ear. The noise the red headed man made wasn’t a word. “Ah, you do.” It had taken years for the two of them to realize that the competition Snoke was stoking between them had been attraction. And then longer until they realized they were better off without him, that together they could win any war. Conquer any land. For all of that to come undone over the scent of rich honey and spices was laughable to Kylo. But possible, nonetheless. Kylo licked a languid line from Armitage’s collar to his ear, right across his gland. “You can have whatever your cold heart desires,” his teeth grazed the shell of his ear, “as long as I am still your king. And you, mine.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so, we're gonna start with a bang and end with a whimper.  
> I humbly present to you Alpha Kylux Murder Husband Porn featuring..!  
> -hair pulling (oooh!)  
> -a hand job (aaahhh!)  
> -mild frottage (meh)  
> -masturbation (admiring nods)  
> -cum swallowing (yay!)  
> -Dom Kylo and kinda sorta bratty sub Hux (roaring applause)
> 
> Your choice in smut matters to us; thank you for choosing Our Lady of Rebellion Brand Smut. (wink, smile)

Kylo pulled him by the braid, away from his desk and into his lap on their bed. Kylo was hot and solid against his back as he pulled Armitage against his chest and between his thick legs. Then he undid the front of his breeches and found Armitage already hard. Armitage breathed through clenched teeth as Kylo worked him. Just as the friction of Kylo’s hand was becoming too rough, he stopped to push three of his fingers into Armitage’s mouth, almost making him gag. Armitage couldn’t see, Kylo’s grip on his braid still keeping his head pulled back, but he felt Kylo’s hand coat him with his own spit and the few drops of cum that had begun to form at his tip.

“Kylo, ah, Maker-,” Armitage gasped at the roof of their tent.

“Do you want me to stop?” Armitage felt Kylo’s hand still, but he could feel his length glistening with cum and spit. Kylo’s thick hand tight around him never ceased to make his heart race. He knew Kylo wanted him to beg from the roasted sugar smell permeating the air. Their innate alpha need to force the other to submit still cropped up in ways that fascinated Armitage. They used it to goad each other. And even to soothe each other. This was Kylo’s way of soothing.

“You know what I want,” Armitage panted.

“You want to rut that mouthy omega, don’t you?” Kylo growled into his ear, sending spasms down his spine. Armitage barely resisted fucking into Kylo’s palm. “You want to push yourself into her slick heat,” Kylo purred wickedly, “until you’ve knotted yourself inside her and pumped her full to dripping.”

Armitage closed his eyes and imagined Rey naked and sweating on her hands and knees, begging her new kings for their cum. For their knots. Certain she tasted of that spiced honey smell he couldn’t get out of his head. He almost reached for his own cock, knowing Kylo wouldn’t finish him off until he relented. He gripped Kylo’s knees instead with still gloved hands, unable to bring himself to submit. Not even by omission. Not like this. Not yet.

Kylo began to suck a bruise near his scent gland, above his collar where he knew anyone would see it. “It’s alright Armitage,” Kylo whispered against his neck, slowly stroking him. “I know you want her.” Armitage was gasping again, his body drawn taught across his lover’s lap. The tension from the nape of his neck eased as Kylo released his braid and he could finally bring his chin to his chest and watch himself engulfed in Kylo’s hand. Those long fingers that had crushed the life out of so many throats, working his slick foreskin in an exquisite rhythm.

“If you want her so bad,” Kylo gritted through his teeth, beginning to rub himself against Armitage’s backside. His other hand snaked around Armitage’s waist and between his thighs to press his fingers into the tender flesh behind his tight sac. “Then I want to watch you take her.” Armitage doubled over as his body seized, choking on his own moan. His cum spurting on to his tunic and breeches in short, erratic arcs. He barely found his breath before Kylo was shoving him onto the floor. Too spent to protest, his knees folded easily under him. The tent seemed to spin and Kylo was standing over him, furiously stroking himself with one hand and taking Armitage’s chin in the other, the pommel of his sword still glinting at his hip. A low rumble drew Armitage’s attention and he blinked slowly as Kylo’s wide, clenching jaw came into focus. His eyes black with lust.

“I’ll watch you make her kneel for us,” Kylo’s voice was raw, his fist a blur in front of Armitage’s eyes. He weakly reached for Kylo’s hips and slowly opened his mouth. “Just as you kneel for me.” Kylo groaned like it hurt to speak.

Armitage closed his eyes and received the communion of Kylo’s thick seed on the flat of his tongue, his chin still in his husband’s bruising grip. He felt Kylo shudder violently, heard him loudly sucking in air, before releasing his chin and settling back on the bed with a low moan. He opened his eyes and looked up in to Kylo’s sweating face, his dark hair sticking to his forehead. Those dark wet eyes that never seemed to age. Only then did Armitage lick his lips and swallow.

***

Rey doesn’t remember getting her ears pierced. She does remember the smooth hands of a servant gently pulling small pink pearls from her ears and depositing them into Plutt’s awaiting palm. Perhaps he sold them. Maybe they were still in his vast collection of treasures. All Rey knew for sure was that she’d never seen them again. Now her ears sported large gold hoops, her lobes unaccustomed to the weight. There was more gold around her throat and wrists, gently clinking and glinting in the soft light of the brazier in the middle of the tent. She turned back and forth in front of a long silver mirror, trying to recognize her reflection now that she was washed and dressed for her first feast in the north. Rose had decided on the emerald silk dress. The sleeves came to her elbows and it had a wide, low neck all the way around but didn’t show any cleavage. It laced down the sides and the back with matching green cord, giving Rey a waist and hips to match, and ended in soft folds at her ankles, which were draped with delicate gold chains hung with little bells that chimed with her steps. It was snug but Rose had only nodded and said it was good for her posture. The least boastful part of her new wardrobe was a pair of soft brown calfskin slippers that were just a shade darker than her own skin. 

The only thing Rey had contributed to the ensemble was taking her curls loose from her braids and combing her fingers through them with sweet smelling oil until they hung down her back, brushing over her shoulder blades and her mating gland. With her glands covered, she felt less exposed.

“One last thing!” Rose chirped. She knelt on a cushion at Rey’s feet, motioning for Rey to join her. Rose had a small wooden box in her lap. She removed the lid and sat it aside revealing a small assortment of cosmetics. Rey recognized its contents from the harem. A little ivory pot of rouge, kohl, and thin sticks of fragrant wood. Rose tenderly dabbed rouge onto Rey’s lips and cheek bones before lining her eyes with kohl. She then took one of the little sticks and held it in the brazier, letting it catch fire for a few seconds before blowing it out, filling the tent with sweet smoke. It reminded Rey of Armitage, and Kylo, but she couldn’t let herself dwell on it right now. Rose tested it against her finger tip before sweeping it across Rey’s eyebrows.

“Now you’re ready!” Rey took another look in the mirror. Her eyes looked bigger. Her lips fuller. She’d seen the harem women draw on their faces almost everyday since her first heat and it never became less magical. Suddenly the mirror turned, showing Rose’s face. “What?,” Rose quipped. “You’re not the only one who’s getting dressed up for tonight.” Rey smirked and watched Rose delicately paint her face in the mirror. It was still her, but somehow _more_ her. Rose then shed her own robe and donned a sleek dress of grey silk with wide sleeves. She slipped a curved gold pendant over her head and regarded herself in the mirror. Rey inspected it over Rose’s shoulder.

“My parents gave it to me before they sent me and my sister west from Otomok. Where I was born. Paige, my sister, has a matching one.” Rose rarely spoke of her family and Rey didn’t pry. There was some kind of sadness in Rose’s face, despite the way she preened herself in the mirror. 

“I think you look lovely,” Rey said, hoping it cheered her.

“Are you kidding? No one’s going to notice me next to you. Gods, I didn’t even know your hair could do-” Rose gestured curlicues with her fingers, “all that!”

“My ladies? Are you ready?” Poe’s voice called from outside the tent. Rey took one last look in the mirror. She took a deep breath. She’d have to be.

Out in the clearing the sun had already disappeared from over the valley, but the sky was still light as evening crept in. Torches had been lit at the edges of the clearing and the horses lazily flicked their tails to ward off flies near the stream. Poe and Finn had washed up as well. Poe had even shaved, looking at ease in a clean linen tunic tucked into worn tan breeches. A soft brown leather jacket clung to his torso, the sleeves laced up with red ribbon. Finn’s white tunic seemed to glow against his skin. He’d tucked it into a bright red kilt that had been pleated into crisp folds at his hips. A style common in the desert, where the day’s heat lasted well into the night. Rey wondered what the northerners wore to feasts and if they’d look as good as Finn and Poe.

“You boys clean up nice!” Rose scoffed. “Can you believe it, Rey? They’ve been hiding all that beauty under dirt!”

“Who knew?” Rey joined in, trying to mimic Rose’s breezy tone.

Finn chuckled before giving a loud whistle. “Wait until these north men get a look at you two!” Finn smiled. Rey felt her face go hot and watched Rose roll her eyes playfully.

“Yeah, I’d like to see these alphas keep it together now,” Poe grinned. “They’ll be drooling, but it won’t be over the food!” He pretended to wipe spittle from his mouth, wagging his thick eyebrows at Finn. Rey couldn’t help but giggle.

“If you’re quite finished,” a stern but playful voice chimed from the edge of the clearing. Phasma stepped smoothly up to their impromptu party. Stopping a few steps from Rose, who looked up at her through her kohl lined lashes. She’d foregon her armor, except for her long sword, and one shiny pauldron over a black leather jacket and breeches. Her short pale blonde hair tied back with a red ribbon. “I’ve been sent to escort you,” she said with a small smile. She’d spoken to all of them, but she kept her eyes on Rose who gave a playful little curtsey. Rey could smell something like cake whisper through the clearing on a breeze. She looked at Finn and Poe and watched them exchange boyish looks before collecting themselves.

“Oh,” Rey said to herself. Flirting. _Flirting_ And then Rey could feel the blood leave her face. She didn’t know anything about flirting. She was about to sit at table with two alphas and while she knew, before she even set foot on wild sand, that the weeks long journey from Jakku was leading to this moment, she had never asked Rose about flirting.

“Lady Rey,” Phasma turned to face her, subtly giving her a once over, “Your retinue.” Phasma stepped aside with a curt bow and Rey saw the ostentatious litter that Plutt had originally intended her to travel in. A box frame of dark polished wood carved with flowers and flourishes and fitted with white gauzy curtains. An assortment of embroidered cushions piled in the back. A small group of the beta men from the Jakku traveling party stood ready to hoist it on their shoulders, while the rest of the group stood a ways back, bearing torches and baskets of the other gifts Plutt had sent to impress the kings in the north. They’d all appeared to have washed and changed into simple celebratory clothes they must have packed in anticipation for the feast at the end of their journey.

“Wait,” Rey blurted out. She could feel a sweat breaking out under her new dress. Phasma wrinkled her nose and took a few steps back. “Rose,” she finally breathed. “What do I say to them? I can talk about horses and sand storms, but what am I supposed to say to-” She found herself remembering the acrid, burnt smell of Kylo’s distaste and the crisp, cool smell of Armitage’s predatory gaze and suddenly this ache was clawing its way up her chest. A need to soothe and placate. To please.

“Rey,” Rose leveled her with a flat look. “Get. In.” Rey opened her mouth to protest but Rose was already putting her hand to Rey’s back and firmly leading her to the litter. She heard Finn and Poe giggling behind them, interspersed with the sound of the bells on her feet. Phasma even gave a little smirk as she watched Rose fluff the cushions into a small pile and then press Rey’s shoulders against them. “Put your shoulders back,” she bossed, not caring who heard her, “now put your leg like this.” Rey wasn’t really following Rose’s instructions so much as she was letting her contort her limbs into place.

“These alphas whined about buying a queen and we are going to serve them one.” Rose arranged Rey’s hair over her shoulders and when she was satisfied with her work she drew the gauzy curtains. “Remember,” Rose whispered, “You’re an omega. There’s nothing in the world they want more than you.”

Rey knew Rose meant to impart confidence, but whatever courage she could take from Rose’s words escaped her grasp when the litter bucked under her like an unbroken stallion. Rey yelped like the flustered sand rat she was as she clung to the frame. It took several lurching moments before the men had it settled on their shoulders and their feet stepped in unison. Rey hated Unkar Plutt even more than she thought she could. How could he possibly commit her, or the caravan, to this gaudy torture device?

The Jakku caravan made its way through the camp, eliciting whistles and cheers from the north men. Drums began pounding, getting louder as the contingent from Jakku grew closer to the feast. The sound of wind and string instruments all fought for attention over the smells of simmering food and sweet wine. Rey’s stomach growled and she realized she hadn’t eaten since the caravan broke their last camp that morning. She peered through the curtains and saw several long tables had been laid out where the officers and soldiers of Arkanis were already making merry. Past the musicians and a regiment of guards where Phasma and Mitaka had taken up position, was another smaller table raised on a dais. Armitage and Kylo sat in great chairs with an empty seat between them.

Kylo reclined with a distant expression on his face, still dressed in his black tunic with gold glinting in the collar. His great bare hand wrapped around a silver chalice. Armitage sat with perfect posture while he cooly overlooked the festivities before him with roving blue eyes. He’d changed into a black tunic that resembled Kylo’s, but still wore his great red cape over one shoulder. Rey found herself smirking at their matching outfits. They looked handsome, if aloof.

As the litter came to stop at the edge of the tables, so did the music. Armitage and Kylo rose to their feet, seeming to command an attentive silence with just their posture. The litter was lowered to the ground with a jolt, but Rey felt it was easier going down than getting up. She wondered if now was the time for her to make her grand entrance but luckily, before she could embarrass herself, Rose appeared in front of her, facing the dais. How did she always know what to do?

“Loyal forces of Arkanis,” Armitage’s voice rung like a bell over the valley. “Today we celebrate a reclamation. Our rightful place in the north is secured thanks to your valiant efforts.” Cheering erupted. Rey saw Kylo give Armitage an admiring glance. So he was capable of some mirth, she mused.  
“And as your kings,” Armitage continued, “it is our duty to procure Arkanis’ future. Tonight we welcome a contingent from Jakku in the south, baring gifts of trade and friendship.” More cheering.

“And the gift of _you_ ,” Rose whispered through the curtain. Then her voice cut over the crowd, demanding rapt attention with every inch of short frame.

“Kings, lords, and men of Arkanis,” Rose bellowed. And then, when the crowd was quiet once more she merely spoke loudly, “We come at the behest of the great merchant Unkar Plutt of Jakku,” Rey rolled her eyes at that, “bearing gifts for the kings of Arkanis and their people.” The rest of the caravan came walking up past the litter to present samples of the gifts with which Plutt intended to ply the north. Spices, gold, oils, and fabric. They laid them on the dais where Armitage and Kylo accepted them with curt nods, the feast goers mumbling and whispering appreciatively.

“But our greatest gift,” Rey could hear the cheeky smile on Rose’s face, “is the gift of an omega bride. I humbly present to you the Lady Rey of Jakku.” The crowd went silent and Rey tried to swallow on a dry throat. This was it. No turning back now. Rose pulled the curtain aside and bowed. Rey stepped out onto the flattened grass. Every eye was turned on her as she scanned the people before her. It was well and truly night now and all she could hear were whispers and the popping of lit torches and braziers under a sky veiled with stars. She tentatively stepped forward, following the path she’d seen the gift bearers take through the tables to the dais. The tinkling of the bells on her ankles seemed to echo over the valley. It was then that she realized Armitage and Kylo had their gaze locked onto her. Rey lifted her chin but lowered her eyes as she reached the foot of the dais. She took a deep breath and her lungs drank in the smells of roasted sugar and sweet mint coiling around each other. Her head swam for a second, the need to please and placate the alphas before her warmly ran up her spine. She wasn’t sure how long she stood there, inhaling their smell, everyone watching her every move. She straightened her back and knelt as gracefully as she could manage, hoping Rose would approve.

***

Foolish. This whole thing was foolish, Kylo thought as he slowly sipped from his chalice. If he could not be in bed with Armitage, then he should be swinging his sword on the practice field until he could collapse into sleep. Perhaps reading the history of the great Republic and Sith wars. But now he was a king and kings had foolish feasts where they entertained foolish omegas sent from the south sands.

The caravan had arrived and he stood with Armitage as he spoke of friendship or some such and the little Haysian woman had said something but then Rey stepped out of that foolish looking litter in a green dress that made her eyes look like emeralds and her hair was loose and impossibly curly and hanging around her shoulders and Kylo… Kylo felt foolish for staring at her. He knew she was the same woman who had forked her tongue at Armitage only hours before, dirty and unkempt from weeks of riding. But nothing had prepared him for the way gold jewelry made her brown skin glow. How the sound of the bells on her feet counted out the rhythm of her hips. And certainly not for the sight of her kneeling before him. It was one thing to whisper it in Armitage’s ear, to imagine her subservience behind closed doors. But to see it out in the open, the perfectly smooth skin of her mating gland peeking through her dark curls in the starlight with her head bent forward over her knee in a sumptuous puddle of green silk... It was almost obscene. Her sweet and spicy scent fluttered up to their table and his prick roused in his breeches and Kylo knew himself a fool. He hated his body for betraying him and he hated Rey for the power she didn’t yet know she wielded over him.

Finally, Mitaka appeared at his side and silently pulled back the empty seat that had been placed there for Rey as their guest of honor. Armitage signaled to Phasma to escort Rey onto the dais. Kylo watched with an eager horror as the lithe omega made her way up to their table and came to stand between him and Armitage. Mitaka gently nudged her seat forward until she was sitting. Kylo caught Armitage’s eyes and for a moment Kylo could almost smell the other alpha’s amusement. Rey kept her eyes down as she settled into her seat, her smell coming more strongly. She was not in heat yet, no. But something in Kylo knew, could taste, that she was close.

The same voice Kylo would use to order an advance on the battlefield rumbled up from his chest and out into the night, dripping with authority and making Rey visibly shudder under his gaze, “We accept your gift.”


	4. Chapter 4

After the cheering and the music had returned and servers baring fresh platters of rich smelling foods made there way to the tables, Armitage found himself thinking a curious thought: When was the last time he’d felt such...peace? Past the pheasant and root vegetables on the silver set in front of him and the bouquet of the wine in his chalice, he was surrounded by the smells of ginger and honey. A ghost from his childhood come to comfort him. Besides his brief approval, Kylo said nothing to Rey, but Armitage watched as he ate efficiently, staring sideways at Rey in between mouthfuls of food. Amicable, really, for Kylo.

Rey, on the other hand, did her best to hide her hunger. But it was difficult for him to ignore that she was enjoying herself. When Rey had first taken her seat, a server came round with a small pitcher and bowl and Rey washed her hands with a little smile, delighting in the novelty. Then little sounds of pleasure kept escaping her throat as she eagerly ate whatever the servers placed on her plate. She had been given a napkin, but she only used it _after_ she’d already licked her fingers. Armitage allowed himself a small smirk. He wondered what other noises Rey was capable of making when she was pleased. He didn’t know how much of he and Kylo’s behavior was because of the floral edge Rey’s scent had developed, signaling her arriving heat, or because Kylo was somewhat at peace as well. But no matter. Perhaps they and their soon to be mate would get along after all.

“Are you enjoying your meal, my lady?” Armitage ventured undercover of the noise of the festivities, turning his head to regard her. Rey’s hazel eyes seemed to double in size as she realized he’d spoken to her. She quickly held one hand up to her mouth as she swallowed whatever she’d been chewing, the rouge having already disappeared from her full lips. An effect Armitage found endearing despite himself.

“Yes. My lord. It’s...delicious. It’s all very good.” The corner of her mouth curled up in a child like smile as she kept her eyes on her plate. “Best meal of my life, probably,” she managed around a spoonful of stew a server had dolloped on her plate. Armitage hadn’t cooked the food, didn’t even know who had. But-

“Perhaps it would please you to know that the venison was from my hunt yesterday. In anticipation of your arrival.” Rey did not look him in the face, but her eyes drifted his way and her mouth made a complete smile, teeth and all.

“Then we are fortunate your majesty is such a good shot.”

He felt pride knowing he was feeding her and she was satisfied. _What was it about omegas that made an alpha want to give?_ , he mused to himself. Armitage’s eyes wandered and he saw Kylo’s face over Rey’s head. His large brown eyes wet with worry. _And take._

“Rey,” Armitage murmured near her shoulder, another lungful of delicious honey slipped into his chest, “Perhaps you may want to ask Kylo if he is enjoying himself.” He watched her dark brows knit together, but she dutifully nodded and wiped her mouth with her napkin again. He watched as she turned her head to speak to Kylo and Kylo’s eyes briefly met his before relaxing. He nodded something to Rey who then reported back to Armitage, “I think he said ‘yes’.” Armitage gave the slightest smile into his cup. How like Kylo to be jealous, but to feel that it was beneath him to do anything about it.

Suddenly there was a hand on Armitage’s arm and he was surprised to see it was Rey’s.

“My lord-”

“Armitage. You may call me Armitage, Rey.” How much wine had he had? Or was it her hand on his arm?

“Armitage,” there was something about the way she rolled the first syllable, like she was asking a question. “Rose would like to ask you something.” Rey gestured with her chin to the front of the dais. Armitage looked down and saw the small woman standing with her head inclined, but her face was already flushed with wine, perhaps explaining her courage to approach them. Perhaps there was some last minute gift Plutt had sent to impress them.

“Lady Rose,” he called from his seat, “How may Arkanis be of service to you?”

“Your majesty,” Rose crooned a bit loudly. It was definitely wine. “I humbly asked your Commander if she would dance with me, but she refused. She said that only her king could release her from duty this evening and I have come to petition you for her freedom.”

Rey had her face slightly turned away, biting her bottom lip, trying to stifle a laugh. And off to the side, Phasma stood at attention, the shadow of a smile on her broad face while she continued to survey for threats.

“Commander,” Armitage said flatly. Phasma attended to him in a few strides of her long legs and a salute of her fist to her chest. Armitage spoke loud enough that Rey could hear him, but kept his tone neutral. “It is imperative that we cement our relationship with the contingent from Jakku.”

“Yes, my lord.” Phasma nodded.

“And so I hereby request that you-” he paused. “Lady Rose, how many dances do you require of the Commander?”

“I would find three quite generous, if your highness would be so kind,” she curtsied perfectly. High tolerance for a small person.

“Commander, I hereby order that you engage in no less than three dances with the Lady Rose before returning to your post.”

Phasma inclined her head. “As you wish, my lord.” Phasma then proceeded to make her way off and down to the front of the dais where she bowed and offered her arm to Rose who happily took it before being swept away by Phasma into the crowd. Armitage chanced a glance at Rey who was smiling into her napkin as her eyes followed Rose and Phasma’s steps in the ring of other dancers. He felt like he’d given her a gift. Until Kylo loudly cleared his throat.

It caught Rey’s attention and Armitage did his best to not eavesdrop but it didn’t matter anyway, he could barely hear what Kylo and Rey were speaking about because the music had changed and somehow become even louder. The caravan from Jakku had lined up and were beginning to engage in a dance Armitage didn’t recognize from the many he’d been taught in his youth.

***  
Rey _liked_ this dance and she suspected that it was Rose who had asked the musicians to play this song so that she could show off to Phasma. Rey watched as the other southerners, and a few brave northerners, lined up in two rows facing each other, bowed, and then engaged in a series of synchronized side steps, circles, and turns until they were back in their original places. The two people facing each other at one end of the lines danced down the middle to the other end under the raised hands of everyone else and then the dance repeated itself. Sometimes until every pair had gone. Sometimes until it was almost dawn. Rey looked forward to this dance every winter solstice, the only celebration she was welcomed to participate in back in Jakku. The one night a year that it didn’t seem to matter that she was a sand rat who oiled and mended saddles, shoveled horse dung, and slept in hay. It was the first dance she’d ever learned.

So it shouldn’t have surprised her that her food lay forgotten in front of her and the bells on her feet were ringing under the table in time to the music and she was completely absorbed watching a tipsy Rose teach a stiff but smiling Phasma how to pivot and kick at the right times.

“Did you want to join them?” a low voice that smelled like warm ginger floated over her ear. Kylo’s voice. She turned towards his voice instinctively and was so startled by the glazed dark eyes that were waiting for her she immediately turned her eyes to her lap instead. Had he moved closer? How could someone smell that good? Why was her stomach suddenly _clenching_?

“I don’t… I mean. Is it appropriate?” She wanted to dance. She didn’t want permission to dance. But she understood if she ought not to. For customs’ sake.

“Is what appropriate?” Armitage had leaned closer on her right. Rey found herself awash in a clean and sweet breeze. Her chest was getting tight and she was sweating and her thighs suddenly seemed glued together. It’s not quite time, she thought, glancing at the waxing moon over the valley. But she felt light headed. Fuzzy. Too soft. She wiped her damp hands on her dress and stood. Armitage and Kylo immediately rose to their feet, flanking her. She glanced between them both and while she’d just watched them pick over several courses, there was a marked hunger in their faces that Rey knew had nothing to do with food. Her blood beat in her ears, a steady rhythm of _al-pha, al-pha, al-pha_. 

“I would like to join my...friends. To dance.” She gave a short curtsey and walked as quickly as she could off the dais without running, bells ringing frantically around her ankles. On her way to the dancers she saw Finn sharing a cup with Poe, Finn showing Poe another kind of dance. Rey reached for the cup and choked down its contents.

“Whoa, now,” Poe reached for the cup but was too late. “That’s not wine, girl.”

“Don’t care,” Rey gasped as the liquid burned down her throat and through her sinuses, clearing her head of _alpha_. She took Finn by the hand and started for the line without looking back. In his mercy, Finn did not protest. She pulled him to somewhere in the middle of the line and stepped in place across from him. It only took them a few seconds to orient themselves and soon Rey found herself breathing the blessedly bland sweat and breath of her beta countrymen. She dipped and turned around Finn. Grasped hands with the people on either side of her while doing a box step. Rey was a small girl again. Completely clean for the first time in weeks. Completely full on fragrant rice and tender lamb and handfuls and handfuls of nuts. Dancing in a line between fire pits under a cloudless sky on the longest night of the year in the Jakku sand.

“Are you ready?” Finn grinned across from her. They were up next to dance the aisle.

Rey knew her smile was all teeth as she nodded back at him. A pattern of claps rung out and then the arms of everyone on the two lines shot skyward, steepling into a roof of brown and tan and pale arms. Finn took the lead, shimmying his hips in his red kilt and wriggling his fingers out at his sides while taking wide steps forward. Rey laughed at his back, glad to let him take most of the attention. Rey clapped her hands in time with the drums and moved forward, rolling her hips in isolated loops, stomping her feet hard enough to hear her bells. The other dancers whooped and whistled, some of the Jakku women ululating as they passed. Rey gave a chuckle as they went under the mismatched arms of Rose and Phasma. Finn ducked extra low to emphasize Rose’s height and Rose gave a good natured giggle. And then they were at the end. Rey stepped back in line, but when she looked up, Poe had come forward to stand across from Finn.

“I hope you don’t mind if I borrow him,” he arched an eyebrow at her.

“Please do,” Rey nodded and quietly gave up her place to Poe. He stepped into the dance with vigor, his feet matching Finn’s beat for beat as they stared at each other from across the aisle.

“Lady Rey,” it was Mitaka, giving her a bow. He had also given up most of his armor in favor of a buttery black leather jacket over a cream colored shirt. “May I escort you back to your seat?” Rey wondered how long he’d been waiting for her. She glanced up at the dais and Armitage caught her eye. He gave her a slow nod and brought his hands together in a silent clap, his lips in a soft smile. Without thinking she looked to Kylo and he was staring at her. His jaw tight. She wasn’t ready to go back up there just yet. Looking back and forth between them already stirring a cloying panic behind her ribs.

“Lord Mitaka-”

“‘Captain Mitaka’, my lady.”

“Captain Mitaka, could you please, um, where could I perhaps get a cold drink of water?”

“I will see that a server brings you some water straight away.” Mitaka nodded as he lifted one hand towards the dais. Towards the seat between the two waiting alphas. Rey swallowed against the dryness in her throat and took a step forward, resigned to her fate. She saw Kylo rise to his feet with a start, hand already gripping the tang of his sword as the music slowed down then died completely.  
What had she done?

“BEN SOLO!” Rey turned in the direction of the bellow. Her eyes darted over the crowd and the other revelers, all of whom also seemed to be looking for the origin of the voice as their own whispers grew into a frenzy. And then she saw, across all the tables and people, two horses with riders on their backs had appeared at the edge of the feast. Gasps began to erupt from the crowd. A contingent of guards hurriedly made their way towards them, armor creaking and groaning over the murmurs. Mitaka, just an inch or two taller than her, had defensively pushed Rey behind him while reaching for his own sword. Rey could easily see over his shoulder that one of the riders was tall, even taller than Kylo. Rey could tell by the proportion of his body to his massive horse. But it was not him who had spoken, though his face was bearded and menacing and clearly capable of command. No, it was the other rider. Small and dark and pointing a finger so gnarled that Rey could see it’s bony knuckles from where she stood. A crone with large fierce eyes. Her thin lips parted and the same voice clamored out.

“Son of House Organa! You will heed me!” But Rey barely caught the end of the old woman’s words because Kylo was growling behind her. She was already halfway to his side of the dais, before the ringing of the bells on her feet made her realize she was moving. A burning, smoky scent that wasn’t from any of the torches or braziers fogging her senses. She wanted to soothe it away from Kylo. She wanted to open her mouth and lick it away. Swallow his anger.

Mitaka stopped her with a gentle hand on her elbow.

“You may want to give him a wide berth, my lady,” he said in a hushed tone. “At least for now.”

***

The loss of Rey’s scent was almost headache inducing. His food smelled stale. His wine like vinegar. The stench of hundreds of people at camp creeping up his nose like a tacky vine.  
After ordering Mitaka to shadow Rey and direct her back to their table as soon as he could, Kylo allowed himself to watch Rey’s body spin and kick in line with the other dancers. Over and over again in the same steps. His meal forgotten, he watched as a smile began to spread across her face and her curls bounced and tossed with her head. Eyes and teeth catching the light like jewels and pearls. She was happy and he felt strongly, so very strongly, that he needed to study this happiness. That it was going to be a standard to measure her future happiness against. The angle at which she threw her head back. The rotation of her shoulder. Like sizing up an opponent’s form. This was the blueprint he needed to memorize so that he would know if he ever made her happy. Because if he had, she would smile exactly as she smiled now. Or, somehow, more.

And then it was her time to come down the aisle of dancers and while Kylo was angry that he could not see all of her through the gaggle of arms and bodies, he could make out the rhythm she was setting with her steps. Knew that her hips and legs must be keeping it’s time as he committed it to memory to use on her later. His plan was dashed when she did appear from under the canopy of dancers, the dark skinned beta she’d roped into her fun stepping to the side in time for Kylo to see the sweat highlighting her brow and cheek bones. The curve from her bust to her hip as she rolled it around a drum beat. He’d be lucky to remember his name.

The other beta from the clearing earlier took her place and Kylo realized she was on her way back to him under Mitaka’s guidance. His jaw began to work in anticipation. He had to think. An open ended question this time. _Do you know more dances? Will you do them for me while I watch you with Armitage in my lap?_

“Kylo,” Armitage coughed out with quiet alarm. But before he could turn to him, Kylo saw the riders at the edge of their feast and he was on his feet and gripping his sword in preparation until-

“BEN SOLO!” the menacing thin arm of Maz Kanata extended towards him among the gasping crowd. “Son of House Organa! You will heed me!”

Kylo didn’t pull his sword, but he wanted to. He wanted to upend the table in front of him and leap over every table or person in his way and cut the little old woman down from her horse for calling him what no one else dared called him. Not even Armitage. But Maz Kanata wasn’t a threat. At least not a physical one.

“THAT NAME IS DEAD! AS YOU SHOULD BE FOR USING IT!”, he roared over the blood beating in his ears. The people of Arkanis who were aware of that name and its connection to that house knew to never speak of them. Which is probably why the crowd was dead silent now. It wasn’t a law he and Armitage had codified. But he was a king now and he had killed others for less. The old mage was now surrounded by a phalanx of guards with spears, but she paid them no mind. Her horse even dismissed them with a toss of its head. Maz’s large eyes bored into him from yards away. Armitage appeared at his side, a cold hand on his shoulder compared to the heat he was emanating.

“You are commanded back to your tents at once! Clear out!”, Armitage ordered. And then less loudly, “Phasma, escort our new guests-” But Kylo wasn’t listening. The large group of people between he and Maz was beginning to loudly disperse, only making it easier for him to cut a path to her. He let his legs take him around the table and over the edge of the dais, landing with a thud. Maz’s eyes remained unflinchingly on him over the line of guards that surrounded her as his hands became fists and his breath became shallow.

“I did not send for you old woman!” he tossed one bench aside with one hand. “How dare you show your face to me?!”, he pushed someone out of his way with the other. He didn’t care that Maz was a mage, her position sacrosanct and revered. She was intruding on royal affairs without summons. He was king. He was judgement. He’d taken that right with his own two hands and the blood of thousands.

Another hand was on him and he violently shrugged it off. Soon, soon he would be bashing that wicked old woman’s teeth in. The hand reached for him again and was pulling, weighing him down.

“Get the fuck off me before I gut you where you stand!”, he rounded so quickly on the fool who dared to keep him from his goal, his braid came swinging over his shoulder. Kylo had to stop his fist from connecting with Rey’s face. She didn’t flinch. She was staring up at him, mouth parted, panting. She was sucking in the air between them, looking up at him with her wide hazel eyes. Her hand was tight on his forearm but then started to move up. And up. And up.

“What are you doing?” he hissed at her. But he couldn’t bring himself to move. He couldn’t bring himself to break eye contact with her. Her breath began to pass over his face and under his nose like a whisper, filling his head with a syrup like sweetness. Pouring over his palate like velvet. Her cool hand found the scent gland on his neck and she began slowly stroking her thumb over it.

Kylo shuddered so deeply he thought he was falling. Was he?

“Alpha.” She said. “Please.” She said.

Her other hand reached for him as well and his whole being was now the two patches of skin on either side of his neck. He could see nothing except her face. Hear nothing except her breath. Smell, breathe, and taste only her scent. Like honey. Like saffron. His hands were on her shoulders. He had to bring her closer. He needed to have her closer. His arms closed around her and his head sunk forward, trying to bury his face in her neck.

“What are you doing?”, he tried to ask again. But wasn’t sure if the words ever left his lips or only rang in the space of his suddenly clear mind. He felt Rey’s lips on his neck. Her wet tongue slid across his gland and time stopped.


	5. The Eternal Empire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh Snap Wexley! Double Update!
> 
> Mentions of incest a la Game of Thrones Targaryens/Lannisters. Special appearances by some of your fave KOTFE characters. Time for some hardcore world building via mythology. Read it out loud in your fave story telling voice for maximum effect.
> 
> Enjoy!

Long before there was Arkanis there was Zakuul. The Eternal Empire; a dynasty that had ruled for a hundred generations. They possessed secret magic that allowed for ancient knowledge and memories to be passed from one ruler to the next, ensuring stability and prosperity for their people. The Eternal Emperor, the Alpha Valkorion and his Omega Empress Senya, sired twin alpha sons, Arcann and Thexan. And an omega daughter, Vaylin. Senya foresaw strife for the Empire and petitioned her husband to let their daughter rule above her brothers, who was well trained in the magic of their people. Valkorion could not deny them their birthright, nor carve up his kingdom to serve his sons. So the emperor pit the brothers against each other. Whoever proved to be the better warrior would be his rightful heir. But the twins were equals. Every tournament ending in a draw. Every foe they were sent after, vanquished. Under their father’s command, Arcann subjugated the Coruscant in the west and Thexan brought the Sith of the east to heel, tripling their father’s empire.

Finally, Valkorion, in his great and ancient wisdom, told his sons that they could share the kingdom if they could share a bride to guarantee their sacred lineage and the future of the Eternal Empire. The brothers agreed but no house would send their omega daughter to be mated by Valkorion’s sons. Fearing for her family’s future, and with her mother Senya’s blessing, Vaylin offered herself to her brothers during her next heat. But they refused her. Arcann, hoping to gain favor with his father, told the emperor what Vaylin had done. In anger, Valkorion banished his wife and daughter to the farthest northern reaches of Hoth.

Thexan found his father’s judgement too cruel and set out to free his mother and sister. Valkorion sent Arcann after him, promising him the throne if he could defeat Thexan. Arcann found Thexan in the winter wastes and they fought tirelessly for three days and three nights, drawing on the magic of their bloodline. But ultimately, it was Thexan who succumbed to Arcann’s blade in the snow. Arcann returned to the palace with his brother’s sword and body. Bereft and regretting his own ambition, he turned on his father Valkorion and slayed him. He then freed his mother and sister, taking Vaylin as his wife and empress.

Unable to overcome his grief, Arcann begged his sister wife to use her magic to resurrect their brother Thexan. Wanting to please her alpha brother, Vaylin and Arcann grew mad as they were consumed by dark magic in pursuit of a power that could conquer death. Having discovered her children’s abhorrent plan and the dark force they aimed to possess, Senya fled to Coruscant and begged for aid. Crushed between Coruscant and a Sith revolt, and losing their grip on the people of Zakuul, Vaylin convinced Arcann to take Thexan’s body and flee with her into the northern wastes.

Senya and her imperial guard intercepted them. Fearing they would succeed with their quest if they escaped, only to return to Zakuul and rule with unnatural power, Senya ordered her guards to kill her own children. Vaylin succeeded in cutting down her mother, but Arcann was gravely injured. Vaylin lashed out in a great fury, decimating what was left of Senya’s guard. She then used her power to disappear into the snows of Hoth with the bodies of her beloved brothers and the secrets of her family’s ancestral magic. Never to be seen again.  
The Eternal Empire fell and Zakuul was conquered and carved up by Coruscant and the Sith as the wars between them waxed and waned. A millennia passed and Zakuul was forgotten to the ages. Then a great Alpha warrior appeared, rallying the northern houses under a new banner. This war lord demanded the people send him their alpha children as tribute. He trained them and groomed them into living weapons. These alpha warriors fought fiercely, ruthlessly reclaiming the old western borders from the new Republic and decimating the Sith in the east. To mark his victory, the northern houses built a new capital palace and named it Supremacy, where one by one they bent the knee and swore fealty to the Supreme Alpha Snoke, and his new empire, Arkanis.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ::coughs::  
> I wasn't expecting to go this route, but here we are.

Armitage had _discreetly_ sent for a healer to attend to Rey, and possibly himself and Kylo, during her heat. It wasn’t uncommon for alphas and omegas to batter each other during a heat and not realize the damage until after the fact. But it was uncommon for a heat to involve two alphas. Let alone recently crowned kings. And that healer was supposed to arrive the same day as the Jakku caravan, and would have been absolutely invited to sit at the feast. And if that healer had done a good job and could be trusted, they would have been invited to take a post at Supremacy, since he and Kylo had yet to staff that position. But someone had said something. Someone had been listening. Someone had been bribed or threatened because instead of a healer it was the mage Maz Kanata and her bodyguard Bacca. And if Maz knew then Leia Organa knew. Later, that someone would pay.

Now he instructed Phasma and Mitaka to route Maz and Bacca before she could run her mouth any more than she already had, but Kylo had already decided that violence was the response for the occasion. And Armitage found himself leaping from the dais ready to put himself between Kylo and Maz if need be. Their tenuous reign was only now gaining legitimacy and if Kylo injured, or worse, murdered, a holy woman in front of hundreds of witnesses because he couldn’t divorce himself from his past then that’s all their reign ever would be. Tenuous.

And everything had been going so well.

A blur of green silk sprinted across the field before Armitage could even finish the thought. Rey. Maker, she was fast. Easily weaving around abandoned tables and picking her way over skewed benches, bells tinkling in the distance. Until she was at Kylo’s side as he bellowed threats at Maz, grasping his arm. Armitage flinched. Because for a half second he thought, he _knew_ , that Kylo would strike her. He watched as Kylo’s fist froze instead and Armitage let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

“Sir,” Phasma was at his shoulder, eagerness in her voice and curt address.

“Wait,” Armitage heard himself say as he watched Rey reach for Kylo’s neck. As Kylo embraced her and became quiet. Still. They became statues save for the breeze that skittered over the now deserted tables and rustled their hair and clothes. The smell on that breeze reached Armitage and he became lightheaded. It was like wine on an empty stomach. Or walking into the haze of a smoking pipe. He turned and even Phasma had gone a bit slack in her stance.

“Do you see?” Maz was calling out to him. “This is why I’m here, boy. To save you from yourselves.” Maz signaled to Bacca who dismounted to another line of guards and their spears.

“Leave them!” Armitage yelled.

He lurched forward, Phasma faithfully following him, but whatever was radiating out from Rey and Kylo grew thicker with every step, threatening to buckle his knees. Feeling like he’d pass out if he got any closer, he was forced to skirt the field of tables. Keeping as much distance between him and his husband and future mate as he made his way to where his guards kept Maz and Bacca pinned in, their armor glinting in the low fires of the braziers and dying torches. In between stealing glances at Rey and Kylo, Armitage saw the guards had receded enough to allow Bacca to help Maz from her horse, but they kept formation. Now that she was on the ground, he couldn’t see her at all. Just Bacca’s quietly menacing face towering over his soldiers.

He waved his hand and the guards stepped aside revealing the tiny old woman. She came up to his waist. Dark brown skin and hair as white as snow peeking from under her dusty riding hood. Everything about her was ancient except her large, owl like eyes. Untouched by age, and red brown under the night sky. Maz was an almost comical contrast to her massive bodyguard who stood almost a head taller than Kylo. Bacca wore his thick brown hair loose and shaggy with a full beard, his silent face tan and sun weathered. Armitage had only ever seen him once before, but Bacca hadn’t seemed to age. Perhaps some power Maz imparted to him. The same power that never seemed to let her die.

“What are you doing here, mage?” Armitage bit out. It was still a little difficult to breathe, but he needed answers.

“First things first,” she said and moved quickly on her tiny legs towards where Rey and Kylo still stood. The guards turned to stop her but Armitage simply shook his head, keeping his eyes on her as she made her way to their entwined, unmoving figures. He watched as she took a little vial of something from her belt and dropped it on the ground before crunching it under her boot. Armitage could smell it from where he stood, something acrid and foul. But it cut threw the fog in his chest like a knife, forcing him to cough and clear his throat. Rey started choking and coughing, falling down to one knee and Kylo groaned and sputtered. Maz had already started back to where Armitage stood, not staying within swinging distance of Kylo for any longer than she needed.

Rey was on her feet again, dazed. A bell tinkling here and there. Kylo was wild eyed, whipping his head and braid around looking from where they’d been sitting only moments ago to where Armitage stood clear on the other side. Armitage felt the way Kylo looked.

“Witch!” Kylo barked at Maz. “What have you done?” He was stalking forward and Rey was slowly trailing him, reaching for him again as the smokiness of his anger rippled out.

“Don’t.” Maz said simply. But it wasn’t to Kylo. It was to Rey. She dropped her arm and stood still. She turned her eyes on Maz before meeting his own. Something in her gaze was naked. A vulnerability Armitage had never seen in a face before and he found himself looking away from her, unable to confront it. What was this? What had he just seen?

“We need to speak. All three of you.” Maz gestured with her sharp little chin. “Privately.”

“I have nothing to say to you,” Kylo spat. Armitage looked from Kylo and back at Rey. Kylo was sweating. Shivering. Rey was blinking, mouth hanging open, lost. It was like they were sick with fever.

Armitage took a deep breath, sucking in the chilly night air and pinching the bridge of his nose between his eyes. He straightened his spine and made a quick assessment before speaking.

“Phasma. Mitaka. I want this camp on secured on all sides.” He undid the clasp at his throat and shrugged off his red cloak. “Everyone is to remain in their tents. Exception for the kitchen staff.” Phasma held out a hand to take it from him, but he shook his head. “Give them a perimeter. No wandering. I want this,” Armitage lifted his chin at the mess of tables and left over food, “cleaned up. Then they’re to return to their tents as well. Report back to my tent when you are done. You two,” Armitage picked two of the guards closest to him, “Escort Bacca and these horses to the paddocks.”

Bacca gave a protesting growl. He ignored it as he slowly stepped over to Rey and draped his cloak over her shoulders. Rey shuddered as the red wool encircled her and Armitage’s voice took on an edge he didn’t intend.

“You have come into my camp without invitation and kept your head,” he said to Bacca without turning his face away from Rey. “Do not further strain my hospitality.” Maz could not be harmed for custom’s sake, but Armitage had no qualms over running his sword through the tall, burly man. Killing someone would probably take some of the edge off. And it had been sometime since he'd killed anyone.

“Go on,” Maz waved Bacca off. “The little kings are coming to their senses.” Armitage sniffed at that but let it go. The sooner the little woman said her piece and left the better.

“Mage. Follow me.” Armitage strode forward, leaving Phasma and Mitaka to do what they did best: create order. He saw Kylo’s mouth start to open but he cut his eyes at him. He took Kylo by the shoulder and pushed him around, towards their tent, finding his husband’s body surprisingly pliant. He looked back at Rey and still couldn’t bring himself to look her in the face, let alone say anything. So instead he took her damp hand in his. She resisted him for a moment. As if she didn’t recognize him. Then she blinked and allowed him to lead her as he nudged at Kylo’s back with his other hand, guiding them both to the tent. Maz trailed behind them, a smug little smile on her wrinkled face that Armitage wished he could slap off her face.

“Already you make a lovely family!” Maz laughed.

***

Rey had been behind Mitaka. And then following Kylo because if she didn’t he was going to catch fire. He smelled like violence and death and if she could just… There. He needed peace so badly. His body aching for it. It was so obvious to her. Of course she would press her fingers on either side of his neck. Of course she would lick him there, under his jaw, behind his ear. He _needed_ it. And then he was calm and warm against her. His arms holding her where she needed to be. Surrounding her with ginger and _alpha_.

Then something too sour and bitter was stinging, cutting through her, into her lungs. It cut between her and Kylo and she felt unbound. Adrift. Like waking up to shifted dunes after a sandstorm. Were those the same fires that had been burning earlier? The same guards? Were those the same stars? The only thing she recognized was Kylo’s angry scent, building up again. And there was that strange little woman telling her, “Don’t”. Don’t what? What was she doing? She was holding Armitage’s hand. His scent was around her, like fresh spring water, washing away the haze. He was taking her somewhere. She let him. Through the camp. A part she hadn’t seen yet. The tents were bigger here. And inside a tent. Candle light. Lanterns. A brazier. Carpets. A great bed. Chests. A mirror. A desk? She was deposited in a plush seat. A cup of something was pushed into her hands by the little old woman. A tiny, wrinkled hand was holding her cheek.

“Drink, child. It’s good for the nerves. As for you two,” she turned on the alphas. Kylo sat in front of the bed on a plumply upholstered bench. His head in his hands, long fingers rubbing his temples. Armitage stood at his side, hands behind his back as he looked down his narrow nose at the small woman. His cloak was gone. That’s right. He’d wrapped her in it.

“Why are you here?” The venom of his words betraying the coolness of Armitage’s eyes.

Rey clutched her drink and gave it a sniff. Some kind of liquor. She took an apprehensive sip and gave a little gasp as it burned down her throat to her belly. She certainly felt more awake. She realized this must be Armitage and Kylo’s tent. It smelled like them. Sweet, fresh ginger. Fragrant cedar wood. She wondered how many horses it took to haul all these things down into the valley. And how many it would take to haul it all North again.

“I’m here on behalf of Leia Organa.”

Rey knew that name. A Coruscanti woman. She helped found the Republic. A place with no ruler. Senators. Senators who didn’t survive what the kings in the north had brought to their borders.

“Your mother.”

Rey froze at that. Kylo’s derision for the old woman. His mother. Kylo’s mother was Leia Organa.

“What the fuck does my mother have to do with any of this?” Kylo growled from his seat. Rey watched as Armitage slowly placed a hand on Kylo’s shoulder. Watched his pale fingers grip the black fabric of his tunic. It seemed a bit darker at his sides. Sweat.

Rey took another burning sip of liquor. What had Plutt gotten her into?

“Don’t be asinine!” the little woman barked. “She worries for her son’s future, like any mother would. When she learned that you two planned to take an omega wife, she immediately knew you would need my help. This hasn’t happened in generations. Did Snoke teach you anything about being an alpha besides how to kill?”

Kylo seemed to struggle with the weight of his own body as he pulled his head back to look up at Armitage. The puckered flesh of his scar glinting in the fire light.

“What are you talking about?” Rey asked. Everyone turned their eyes to her.

Maz stood level with Rey even though she was sitting. For an ancient looking woman, she moved easily. Rey looked into Maz’s large inspecting eyes, unable to turn away, sure the old woman was reading her mind. Her soul. 

“Do you know what a heat is?” Maz asked, squinting. Rey felt herself blush. The scent of Armitage’s cloak becoming a little bit stifling.

“It’s a special time in an omega’s life that attracts alphas and allows her to get pregnant.” Surely everyone knew that? Was she being tested to see if she was good enough for Leia Organa’s son?

“Every word you just said is wrong.” Maz threw up her little hands. “You could have a beta’s child given enough tries. A heat is a trial.” Maz’s face hardened. Rey felt her brows tighten on her face. “A heat,” Maz continued, “is designed by nature to pit alphas against each other, so that only the strongest can mate.” Rey cringed at the word. She had been told that to be mated was to be bitten. That she would _like it_. And she simply couldn’t abide the thought of her ever wanting to be bitten. It was something she’d simply accepted as part of her fate. Like shoveling dung. Or one meal a day. Or being sold to two men who needed her to have their children.

“That,” Maz said with emphasis, raising one bony finger, “is why alphas sneak their omegas away ahead of time so that they don’t have to fight anyone off. So that they don’t have to compete. Fighting or not, though, it’s still the omega who suffers.” Maz’s eyes seemed just a little wetter in the low light as she looked at Rey. Rey lowered her eyes. Rey had had all her heats alone. Locked into a small room in the harem. The omega room. Originally for Plutt’s omegas if more than one went into heat at a time. She would resist touching herself as long as she could. She thought if she could resist it a little longer each time, then maybe one day she could resist it all together. She had spent the last four years of her life hating her body. Hating the need inside her that she could not name. Could not control.

“We will take her away,” Armitage ventured. “There are preparations in place to ensure her safety.” Armitage looked in her direction, but not quite at her. “And comfort.” Rey let her eyes slide from his face to the floor. What would that look like, coming from these men? Rose had told her things that made it sound like a harem party. All naked flesh and finger foods. Rey just wanted it to be over. Hopefully being at the disposal of two alphas would make it go twice as fast.

“And what preparations have you made to keep yourselves from tearing each other apart?” Maz arched her white eyebrows insistently.

“That's not an issue for us.” Kylo rumbled from his seat.

“Foolish boy,” Maz hung her head. “This is why Leia sent me. Whatever bond you’ve sealed between yourselves won’t save you from a heat. It’s already happening.” Rey looked up at that.

Maz was sidling up to Armitage.

“You’ve seen it for yourself,” she said darkly. “That smell. You could barely walk towards it. And your husband would’ve been just as dumbfounded if it was your rage she was quelling.”

“Armitage.” Kylo asked without asking.

“When you went after the crone,” Maz rolled her eyes at Armitage as he recounted the moment that already felt like a distant memory to Rey. “Rey followed you. She...subdued you. In a way.”

“I think I remember,” Kylo said absently. He turned his deep brown eyes on her. “You licked me. On my scent gland.”

“I had to.” Rey said without thinking. “You were going to kill her!” Rey found herself standing, Armitage’s cloak left in her seat, cup tipping its contents onto the carpet underfoot. She went to sit it on the nearest surface. A low table. She didn’t know what else to do so she sat back down.

“And how did you know to do that?” Maz said with an expression that made it clear she already knew the answer to that question. How did she know? No one had told her she could do that. Not even Rose. She had never seen it. Neither of the few omegas mated to Plutt had ever licked him out of a destructive mood, that she knew of. She’d have done it herself if she’d thought it would help, although Rey shuddered at the thought.

“I just… knew.” Rey admitted.

“Nature finds a way,” Maz sighed. She stepped in front of Kylo and reached for his collar. He flinched at first, but Maz only stepped closer. She took his chin in hand and gave it a sharp tug so that she could get a look at the gland Rey had licked while Kylo growled. “When two alphas are in competition for the same omega, and neither yields,” she gave Kylo’s neck a cursory sniff before turning back to Rey. “Then it is up to the omega to choose.”

“I didn’t _choose_ him,” Rey said immediately. “I didn’t choose _any_ of this.” The idea that she had a choice was insulting. Rey suddenly found herself empathizing with Kylo’s dislike of the little woman.

“We,” Armitage said a bit loudly, blue eyes glinting, “are not in competition.”

“Perhaps not,” Maz shrugged. “But neither of you is yielding, either.” There was a long pause inside the tent. Even the flames seemed to stand still.

“Are you saying that we must choose who beds her?” Kylo broke the silence. Rey looked between his face and Armitage’s. Neither of them seemed very keen on that idea. She wondered why that mattered to them.

“That would be the safest thing to do,” Maz answered matter of factly. “One of you could take this heat, and the other the next. But then you run the risk of the omega rejecting the latter, assuming she’s with child by the former. Or being rejected by the latter because she smells like the former. But if you haven’t mated her, perhaps you could make it work. But if she’s not mated, that could make pregnancy difficult-”

“What are we supposed to do, then?” Rey interjected. She felt herself struggling a little to breathe. Maz was talking about her like she was a broodmare and she could smell sugar and mint creeping across the carpets as Armitage and Kylo listened to all the ways in which they could have her. Their arousal spiking the closed air of the tent betrayed their stern faces. Rey was ready to leave, but she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have some say in what was about to happen to her body for once.

“Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it?” Maz said with both of her small hands turned up in front of her. “You have to choose both of them.”

***

Kylo held his head in his hands again, heels of his palms to his throbbing temples. It felt a little better when he could get a decent whiff of Rey sitting across from him, now that she’d shrugged off Armitage’s cloak. While that forsaken old woman was prattling on about their supposed choices. And now he was being told that Rey must choose them both if one of them wasn’t willing to sit out this first heat with her. As if the throne they fought for would so easily bend to the will of the borderless Maz Kanata.

“Get out.” Kylo said plainly. He saw Rey’s eyes go wide and Maz’s somehow become bigger than they already were. He shook his head with a grunt and realized they weren’t sure who he was talking to. Armitage’s fingers squeezed his shoulder.

“Kylo.” He shrugged out of Armitage’s grasp as he got to his feet. Maz kept her eyes on him, even if it meant tilting her head almost to the ceiling. Kylo delighted in looking down at her. And Rey.

“I’m not going anywhere unless you can assure the safety of this young woman,” Maz defensively placed her body between him and Rey.

“Omegas,” Kylo grimaced through the pain in his head, “do not choose.” He looked at Armitage over his shoulder. He did not want to look at Armitage. “Alphas choose.” He looked at Rey over Maz’s more than slight body. The shining gold on her ears and around her neck, framing her freckled face. “And we have chosen her. And paid for her. And now she’s ours.”

“Stubborn, spoiled, selfish boy,” Maz hissed at him, but he kept his eyes on Rey and she held his gaze. Black pepper and cinnamon simmering in the air. It burned through his throbbing sinuses, but already the pain in his head was disappearing.

“We intend to share her. We rescued her from a life as a sand rat in Jakku. I wouldn’t call that selfish.” Kylo heard Armitage faintly huff at his cruel joke, but it made him prickle. Rey’s jaw clinched and her chest began to rise and fall rapidly. More cinnamon. More pepper. Kylo gulped it down.

“This is not the battlefield.” Maz said with annoyance. “You can not win her over with brawn,” she looked over to Armitage, “or scheming. You have to let her choose you as you have chosen her.”

“And how exactly are we supposed to do that, old woman?” Kylo almost laughed. This was becoming ridiculous. His desire to throttle the mage had receded, but it was leaving impatience in its wake. Or was it humor? He wasn’t sure. He was sure he felt like laughing. And breaking things. And looking into Rey’s angry gleaming eyes.

“You can both be with her during her heat if you’re… restrained.” Maz shrugged the last word.

“What do you mean?” Rey asked, turning her eyes to Maz. He… did not like that. Maz turned around to face her.

“If they want you at the same time- If you want them at the same time, they will need to be tied down and then you can go to them one at a time, as you like.” He couldn’t see it, but Kylo could hear Maz grinning. Rey, on the other hand, looked mortified. None of that kept the sound of blood from beating in his ears.

“You cannot be serious,” Armitage had stepped forward, red gold brows knitted together. “You cannot expect us to-”

Rey groaned. She immediately pressed a hand to her abdomen. Her lower abdomen. Her lips spreading in a small “oh” that Kylo could not look away from. He wanted to fall down the well of her throat.

“See what you’ve done?!” Maz was exasperated. “Come child, we must get you out of here. It’s not safe.” Maz went to offer her bony arm to Rey, but Armitage was already striding across the tent.

“Stop.”

“Kylo?” Armitage rounded on him.

Had he just..?

“Perhaps-,” his head had gone from aching to swimming. “Perhaps we should not get too close.”

Armitage arched a brow at him. Kylo swallowed. His mouth tasted like honey. It was coating the inside of his throat.

“My lords!” Phasma. “The camp is secure, as requested. We await further instructions.” Armitage gave him a narrow eyed look before leaving to speak with Phasma. And Kylo... Kylo felt relief that he was gone. Rey groaned again, the sound clawing at his chest. He watched her double over, panting. Squeezing the hand Maz had offered her. But Maz wasn’t looking at Rey. She was looking at him. Or, more precisely, the part of him that was eye level with her.

“Protect your _investment_ , Solo,” Maz sneered. “And leave now, while you still can.”

 _That fucking name again._ But it was enough to rouse him. He gritted his teeth, felt his face twitch at Maz’s insolence.

“Then do what you came here for,” he spat. “Get her ready.” He turned on his heel before he could take another breath of the honeyed miasma that had filled the tent and he lumbered out into the fresh night air.

Kylo felt like he was waking up.

“...send servers to prepare the cave. Post beta guards at the entrance. I want a runner, the quarter master, and the kitchen staff on call until further notice. And find some rope. The stronger the better. At least twenty yards. Find somewhere for...”

Kylo rubbed his face and pushed his hair out of his eyes. Armitage’s voice was droning. Annoying.

“Mitaka!” The young man stepped forward from Phasma’s side, ever her shadow.

“Yes, my lord.”

“Prepare my horse.”


	7. Chapter 7

Armitage had never really considered his pride as an alpha. He was the last and only son of an old house. He had surmounted the anonymity of the island his family had claimed for centuries, the arduous training and cut throat ranks of the Supreme Alpha Snoke, and now the throne of Arkanis. He knew these things made him a man worth fearing, if not exactly a good man. Certainly not a good man.

Was he a good alpha?

Snoke would say omegas made an alpha weak. Armitage had seen the towering old man wrap his long fingers around many a beta courtesan's arm, and sometimes an alpha’s, and yet none of them ever gave him a child. And here he was ready to tie himself down so that an omega could mount him. He had stood by and said nothing as Kylo goaded Rey into a premature heat. He wanted to calm him. But the way she smelled had become so intense. So delicious. They should have known, Maz should have known, not to trap all three of them together inside like that.

Damn what Snoke would say.

Armitage would surmount Snoke’s failures as well.

At least he was prepared, as always. He was lucky the valley proved a sufficient place to camp and meet the Jakku party instead of risking Rey going into heat before reaching Supremacy. One cannot plan for luck, though. The real reason he’d chosen this location was because of the cave. A large one inside the northwestern side of the cliff face of the valley. Hard to access and easy to defend. Rutting with an omega during a heat was the most vulnerable he and Kylo would be. And the most dangerous. But it would still be an excellent time for his enemies to attack. This he could plan for, and so he had.

“Where are you going?” Armitage asked Kylo once Phasma and Mitaka had left to relay their orders. Kylo wouldn’t look at him. “You run that fine mouth of yours to push her into heat and now you’re leaving?”

“I didn’t-...,” Kylo looked at him and looked away, shoulders curving forward. “That was not my intention.” Armitage could smell Kylo’s confusion, his scent stirring from sweet to stale and back again. They were alone in front of their tent, the camp under curfew and quiet around them. He moved closer and took Kylo’s hand.

“Kylo. I won’t do this without you.” Kylo still wouldn’t look at him. Armitage took his chin in hand and tilted Kylo’s face. Large brown eyes met him without blinking. Armitage dragged his thumb over Kylo’s plump lower lip. “We have gotten where we are together. We cannot move forward alone.” Then, a whisper. “No one need know the rope is for us.” Kylo simply nodded. Fate seemed to be the only thing that could defeat them.

“I’ll meet you at the cave.” Kylo leaned into his hand for a moment before stalking away.

A second later Maz emerged from the tent.

“I’m afraid I must apologize,” she said quietly. Armitage regarded the little old woman cooly.

“For ruining what otherwise was a very pleasant evening? Whatever could you mean, mage?”

“No. Not that.” Armitage arched an eyebrow at her small words. “For forcing your hand. It was the only way I knew you’d listen.”

He felt his jaw tighten. His fingers curl into fists. Of course. Pushing Rey into heat would force them to heed her advice. All that was left to know was how much of this plan was Maz Kanata and how much was Leia Organa. And why. Questions for another time.

“Very well,” he said with every bit of ice he could remember from his lonely childhood winters. “When this is over,” he glared down his nose, “You will leave. And You will never show your face to me, my husband, or my omega ever again. Because I would gladly wage another war to slaughter anyone who would oppose your public execution.”

Maz stared defiantly up at him before she nodded. “I have only one last thing to say. When you mate her, you must both bite her at the same time. It may be painful for her, but it’s the best way to go about this. For her sake.” There was something, a sadness perhaps, in Maz’s wide eyes that gave weight to her words. His gut told him this was more important than anything else she had said. He nodded at her.

“I’ll send staff for you. Wait here.” Then he turned on his heel and left. A good alpha would not leave the body of a murdered old woman for his omega to find just after she had gone into heat.

***

This was all wrong. She was supposed to have a few more days. She was supposed to have more time before she became _theirs_. But now her muscles were tightening between her hips and she was sweating and… Rey began to fumble with the laces of her dress, but the gold around her wrists was too heavy, too loud. She tore bangles from her arms and unclipped the earrings from ears. Pulled chain after circlet from her neck into a clinking pile at her feet.

Maz came back and saw her disheveled and sweating. “Poor child,” she said softly, “let me help you.” Rey fell to her knees and started crying. If it was relief or anguish she didn’t know. She let Maz’s small, cool hands pluck the remaining gold from her body and undo the laces of her gown. Rey shrugged out of the offending garment and saw the wet spot at the back of it.  
“It ruins everything,” she sobbed. “I hate this. I hate it so much.” Maz found a wash basin and brought her a cold, damp cloth. She let the curious little woman wipe away her tears and the rest of her makeup. Then she rinsed it out in the basin and pressed the cloth to Rey’s forehead, moving Rey’s hand hold it in place. She was naked, kneeling in her shoes, on the floor of a tent in a foreign land going into heat. She wanted to run out into the cold night and disappear. Her womb seemed to do a somersault and a fresh round of slick slowly found its way to the back of her calves.

Maz reappeared beside her, draping something over her naked body. At first, Rey wanted to cringe at the texture of the fabric on her clammy skin, but she was suddenly calmed by the scent that enveloped her.

“Oh,” she hiccuped. 

“It’s from off their bed,” Maz offered. “It should help until they come for you.” With her head a little clearer Rey suddenly realized something.

“This whole night,” Rey said slowly, “I never once smelled you. Are you a beta?”

Maz gave a short laugh. “Oh no, child. I am something even more rare than you.”

“What do you mean?” Rey blinked, taking the now warm cloth from her forehead.

“I am a _kai_.”

“A what?”

“A kai. I take no one to my bed. I have never felt the need. I appreciate beauty. I’ve had many offers. But never any desire.”

“So you’ve never…?” Even though this woman had just talked about mating openly in front of her and two alphas, Rey couldn’t bring herself to say it to Maz’s face.

“Oh, I have,” Maz said brightly. “The caressing and the kissing I quite enjoyed.” Memories seemed to pass over her large eyes. “But I never felt the way all the songs and poetry said I would. It took another mage, long dead now, to see what I was and give it a name. I apprenticed under her and follow in her footsteps. One has plenty of time to learn about the world and its secrets when there is no lover waiting for you. And when you do not seek one.”

“I envy you,” Rey said sheepishly. How wonderful, she thought, to be free like that. To travel. To have no master. To have a body that never betrayed you because someone smelled like fresh water and sweets.

“I envy you,” Maz said softly, taking the damp cloth from Rey’s hand to wet it again. “You will soon have the ears of the kings of Arkanis. You will be the mother of their children. The great houses may serve the throne. But the throne will serve you.”

“I’m a broodmare for two glorified murderers,” Rey grimaced through the dull pain circling low in her belly. Maz dabbed sweat away from her forehead. Rey closed her eyes and let her. “I’ve never been with anyone during my heats,” Rey whispered into the space between her and Maz. The carpet blurred under her as her eyes filled with tears again. “Will it really feel better? Because if it doesn’t…” She’d rather die of thirst in the sands. Throw herself from the high stone precipices overlooking the valley. Be trampled by a herd of horses. If her life was to be more pain, what was the point of coming as far as Arkanis?

Maz took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

“I promise.” The old woman said. “I promise.”

It was quiet, save for the sound of Rey’s sniffles and her occasional groan at her cramping body. Then she heard footsteps and found herself on the edge of panic. A regular symptom of her heat that she’d never quite understood.

“You’re skittish. It’s normal.” Maz shrugged. “Until you’re in a proper nest with your alphas you’ll be on edge.” Rey nodded and tried to breathe.

“Lady Rey?,” a gentle voice called from outside.

“Come in,” she managed, pulling the blanket more closely around her naked body where she knelt. It was Mitaka. He had a small canvas bundle under his arm.

“I’ve been sent to escort you to Lords Armitage and Kylo. Please get dressed and follow me.” He stepped forward and placed the bundle before her on the carpet. “My lady mage,” he then said to Maz, “Your services will not be required until later. There is another guard outfront waiting to lead you to your accomodations for the rest of your stay.” Mitaka gave a curt bow and exited swiftly. Rey unfurled the bundle. The canvas was a long, thin jacket and inside it a sleeveless slip of white silk. Smooth and airy.

“I guess this is my wedding dress,” she said to herself.

“It’s an old tradition,” Maz said as she peeled the blanket away from Rey’s sweating body.

“To see my virgin’s blood?” Rey wrinkled her nose.

“Oh no, you’ll be naked before that happens,” Maz gave a chuckle. “Surely you’ve seen what happens to white silk when it’s wet.” Rey rolled her eyes.

She pulled the slinky garment over her head. It was a bit snug at the top, even with the short set of leather laces at the bust, but the skirt was quite loose. And despite wanting to claw some of her skin off, it was comfortable. Then she put an arm in the sleeve of the canvas jacket and cringed. She pulled it off immediately and tossed it on the seat she may or may not have left slick on. Maz gave her a knowing look and handed the blanket back to her and Rey eagerly draped it around her like a cloak, inhaling the sweet and herbal scent of the two men who were waiting for her somewhere out in the night.

Rey looked down at Maz and gave a half smile.

“Thank you, Maz. You’ve been so kind.”

“I’m glad you think so,” Maz replied. But she sounded sad to Rey. “It’s time.”

Rey followed Mitaka out into the crisp night air. Away from the tents, past the horses and livestock that had been brought to sustain the Arkanis camp. At the edge of the camp, a contingent of guards who’d been speaking amongst themselves snapped to attention and saluted Mitaka. Next to them, a young page in black and red livery waited with a torch. Mitaka took it and offered Rey his arm. Normally Rey was the most sure footed person she knew, but her heat could pull her feet out from under her at any time. So she took his arm and was grateful for it. The path up the northern side of the valley was narrow and she would have easily slipped or fallen over on her own as the blanket’s smell was soon becoming ineffective against her cramping belly. After some time, the path finally flattened out and they came upon two guards in full armor. They gave Mitaka a quick salute. Past them, little lamps dotted the rest of the path up to a narrow opening in the rock face. Rey felt an odd sort of fear. These men meant her no harm, barely looked at her, but they weren’t…right. They weren’t _alpha_.

“Lady Rey,” Mitaka bowed. “I bid you goodnight and-” Mitaka swallowed nervously. What did one say to an omega on the eve of her heat? Rey didn’t want to find out.

“Please check on Rose for me. And our horses.”

“Of course, my lady.” Mitaka seemed relieved. The two guards stood impassively and the little flames of the lamps beckoned with their little flames. She wrapped the blanket more tightly around her, sucking down the sweet smell of the two alphas to steady her the rest of the way. Rey took a step forward when her womb gave a sudden lurch and she doubled forward. An arm came up to keep her from crumpling to the ground, catching her right as her knees were inches from the stone path.

“Why aren’t you inside yet?” She could best describe the voice as a tender growl. It was Kylo, sweat gleaming on his face in the flickering fire light. Black hair sticking to his face. If Rey had been breathing before, then she must have been doing it wrong. The air around her was cool and woodsy, but Kylo smelled like sugar boiling up in thick, languid bubbles from a copper pot over an open fire. _This_ was breathing. _This_ was air. She could taste it. She could subsist on this smell alone. Her body went limp. Cramps almost disappearing altogether as the warm wave of _alpha_ washed over her.

“My lord, she’s only just arrived. I didn’t want to, er, stress her.” Mitaka said with a salute. Kylo ignored him, instead he kept his dark hungry eyes on her. Rey felt the world shift and suddenly she was weightless and looking up at the sky. It took her a moment before she realized that Kylo had lifted her into his arms and was carrying her towards the shadowy mouth of the cave. Part of her immediately felt indignant. How dare he? But another part of her, a louder part, was giddy. It was like riding a horse at full gallop. Sneaking an extra long drink of water on the longest day. She brought her face towards the closest gland in his neck and took a deep breath, like she was appraising a vial of perfume. She couldn’t remember ever feeling giddy during a heat. Perhaps Maz was right.

She felt his body shifting under her, his long legs eating up the stone floor as they entered the cave. She looked over Kylo’s shoulder and watched Mitaka and the backs of the guards grow smaller and then disappear as they rounded a bend in the cave’s entrance. In the arms of a man she’d met that morning, being carried into a secluded cave in the dark night, she felt the safest she’d ever had in her short life.

***

While it was frowned upon to go off without at least one guard to watch his back, Kylo had never been successfully ambushed in his entire life. Not counting the times Armitage snuck up on him when they trained under Snoke. He needed to be somewhere secluded, where he didn’t have to worry about “startling” anyone, as Armitage called it. After finding his horse saddled and ready for him at the camp’s paddock, a great black gelding named Upsilon that had served him during the last of his encounters with the Sith warlords, he rode west from camp into the more narrow part of the valley.

Under the light of the waxing moon, he found a copse of saplings encroaching on the territory an older tree had left behind. Fallen over from wind and rot. Kylo pulled his long sword from its sheath at his hip and grasped it with both hands. He adapted his training forms to the positions of the young trees and cut through them like the men he’d slain in war, bellowing his frustration as he went. Upsilon, having braved roves of screaming, bloodied men, simply huffed and nibbled the grass at his feet. Kylo hacked and yelled his way through the saplings. But no matter how much cold air he sucked down, no matter how much he sweated, he couldn’t clear the smell of peppered honey from his head.

Rey seemed to have a stronger effect on him than Armitage. Perhaps it was because she’d licked him and his body was still... feeling that. Perhaps it was something else. But the way he’d begun to feel towards Armitage, to not want to be near him. To not want to share something, someone, they both wanted. That couldn’t stand. The only person he’d ever trusted. Loved.

Kylo took a chamois from his saddle bag and got to polishing the sap and bits of wick from his blade, his breath ragged.

“Your mother will be happy to know that you’ve found more productive ways to deal with your anger.” Kylo could feel the blood drain from his face at the same time he pointed his sword in the direction of the voice. Upsilon balked and stilled, then went back to snuffling grass. Whatever the threat, it wasn’t here for the horse.

“Show your face before I run you through,” Kylo hissed at the shadows. But he already knew that voice. It just took a moment for his mind to catch up to his memory.

Bacca stepped slowly into the moonlight. Though taller than Kylo and much older, his feet were silent on the valley floor. Bacca’s face was hard behind his bushy beard but he raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. The line of a bow jutting out from over his shoulder. A quiver at his side.

“What reason can you give me to not kill you where you stand, old man?”

“Because I promised your mother I would return to tell her of her wayward son. Her son the king.” Bacca lowered his hands.

“Damn you and damn her,” Kylo spat, sheathing his sword and stomping back to Upsilon. He took the horse’s reins in hand.

“Run from your past if you wish, young king. But there is no where you can go where it will not find you.” Bacca circled up to the horse and offered it a piece of something from one of his many leather pockets. Probably sugar. Kylo remembered that from somewhere in his childhood. Upsilon crunched on it before inspecting Bacca’s wide hand for more.

“Why did she send you?” Kylo was shaking. He tried to ignore it. He had every right to kill this man. His mother had been silent since the siege of Coruscant and _now_ she was suddenly concerned about his bedfellows.

“You and Armitage are at the precipice of greatness. But whether that is great glory or great ruin is still to be seen.” Bacca rubbed Upsilon’s head, ran his fingers through the gelding’s forelock. “She asked me to tell you that you do not have to rule Arkanis the way you won it.”

“Am I to tell my husband we should forego the throne so that we can elect corrupt senators like my mother?” Bacca simply cut his eyes at him before giving Upsilon one last pat to the neck, the horse still sniffing diligently for more sugar.

“Balance, Ben.” Kylo snarled at the name. “You mother only ever sought balance. She wants you to learn from her mistakes.” Bacca looked up at the moon. “The ones she made in the senate.” Then he looked Kylo right in the eye, finding him easily despite the darkness. “And with you.”

“This is about my having children.” Kylo almost laughed. All of this because Leia Organa was about to become a grandmother. His bitter mirth faded quickly. Kylo had not considered what that meant in terms of his _family_. He had only thought in terms of securing the throne for Armitage and himself. Bacca simply shrugged and turned to leave.

“Be good to her,” Bacca called from the shadows as he melted into the valley. “Treat her the way your father should’ve treated Leia.”

Kylo could kill him just for that. Should kill him just for that. For uttering that name. For showing his hairy face. For sneaking up on him. Instead he heaved himself up on his horse and turned towards the direction of the cave.

As he rode in the darkness, Kylo thought about the way he hadn’t wanted Armitage to go near Rey. Enough that he would say it out loud in front her. In front of Maz. Yet even then, it wasn’t Armitage’s smell that bothered him. Once they were outside in the fresh air, it was easy to lean in to Armitage’s hand. He thought about what he could remember from when she licked him. How good, how right it felt. And he realized no matter how much he loved Armitage, and how little he knew Rey, she could offer him something his alpha husband couldn’t. Children, yes, but something else. Peace.

He left Upsilon tied along the path where he knew a dutiful server or guard would find him and made his way to the cave. The moonlight more than enough for his trained eyes. He could smell her, getting more ripe. More ready. Then he could see her curls gleaming in the light from Mitaka’s torch and he recognized the blanket from his bed wrapped around her. The shadow of her brown limbs through the thin white shift underneath. His chest tightened as he grew closer. Sweet, warm _omega_ beckoning him along the rocky path. And then she was tripping on the stone and it was easy, so easy to catch her.

“Why aren’t you inside yet?” Kylo couldn’t remember if he’d actually said it or not. He just knew if he picked her up and carried her himself she’d be there quicker. He’d be there quicker. With her. With Armitage. The three of them finally, blessedly alone.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry I made y'all wait this long.  
> I worked really hard on this so I hope it was worth it!

The cave was an oblong space with three natural pillars supporting its high roof. There was a small pool in the back that was filled by an underground stream, deep enough to bathe in the chilly water. Armitage had requested all the appointments himself. A barrel of drinking water, with a ladle and cups. A pile of soft, clean towels. A dish of soap. A makeshift bed of fresh straw, lavender, and rosemary, that could easily be disposed of when they were done. A stack of linens for the bed. Candles. Cords of wood across from the fire pit that threw shadows against the stone walls. Platters and bowls of fruit, vegetables, and nuts laid on a low table made from a few planks of wood laid over stones. Blankets. Pillows. Changes of clothes. The rope. All in baskets of various sizes.

Armitage assured himself that he was not fidgeting. He was moving through the cave, roving his eyes over all the things he had requested and checking that they were sufficient. Kylo was, more often than not, without preferences for things like this. They had both been raised in old, noble houses and while Kylo allowed Snoke’s training to strip him of small desires, Armitage had only seen it as a sort of pause. A delay until the little luxuries he was accustomed to would be returned to him. But he had no way of knowing what Rey would like. What she would find pleasing in this nest he offered her. He found himself impatient to know.

Certain everything he’d asked for was present, he checked the fire in the pit. There was nothing for him to do but wait. He was terrible at waiting. Finally, he decided to pull off his boots and shirt, finding the clean swept stone floor pleasantly cool underfoot. In his breeches, he wrapped his braid into a bun at the back of his head and went to test the rope. He found a length that was smooth and flexible in his hands. He looked around the cave and decided he should be tied to one pillar and Kylo to another. He sat at the foot of one and then the others to see which would be more suited. As he was getting up from the floor for the fourth time, he heard faint footsteps before he saw the shadows looming and turned towards the entrance.

Armitage stumbled forward at the sight, his bare feet now heavy and clumsy.

Kylo was carrying Rey, eyes searching the cave. Rey’s face was tucked into Kylo’s neck and a twinge of longing thrummed through Armitage’s body. He had almost gotten close enough back in the tent, but now she was here. They were, all three, finally here. Armitage let them pass him and then followed Kylo to the bed at the back of the cave. Kylo slowly lowered Rey to the bed. She sat on the straw, wrapped in a blanket. The same blanket he’d been laying under this morning when he woke up next to Kylo. Armitage felt himself throb inside is breeches.

“You’re here.” he said to them both. Kylo barely looked at him before he began to undo the fastenings of his sword belt, then gently propped the sword up against the wall next to the bed. He looked Rey over. She sat there, at their feet. Dark thick curls still loose around her shoulders and hands clutching the blanket around her and looking between the two of them, lips slightly parted. As if about say something. “Is she alright?” Hux said to Kylo, who was busy shucking his boots and pulling his tunic over his head.

“I’m fine,” Rey said. Armitage found himself kneeling at the sound of her voice. And now that he was closer to her... He couldn’t see it. Not yet. But he could smell the slick that must be trapped between Rey’s thighs. A sweeter, more floral honey was curling around his nose, against the back of his throat.

“I can smell you.” Armitage said. Kylo growled over his shoulder in agreement. Rey seemed to convulse at his words. One hand letting go of the blanket to press against her abdomen as her eyes winced shut. Her thighs pressed tightly together while her lashes laid shadows on her cheekbones, her whole face shined with an immaculate veil of sweat. She was wearing the white silk shift he sent for her and he could see the shadows of her nipples, her breasts straining against the fabric. The dark brown of her hand contrasted against the white fabric in the low light of the dancing fire. And then, further down, the material clung to the top of her thighs. Wet and sheer.

“Armitage,” Kylo had him by the wrist. He looked down and saw that his hand had been reaching out to Rey. Fingers inches from her knees. She still had her hand pressed under her navel, but her eyes were open again. She was looking at his outstretched hand. Her bottom lip caught between her teeth.

“The rope,” Kylo said. “Let’s get this done.” Armitage nodded, barely able to tear himself away from the low bed. He picked up the two smoothest lengths of rope and turned to see Kylo sitting at the base of the pillar closest to the bed. Kylo sat facing Rey while she watched them with wide eyes and a slack mouth.

“Tie me here. Where I can see you,” Kylo rumbled at Rey. Deciding he wanted to keep her in view as well, Armitage went and sat next to him on the ground. But not close enough to touch Kylo. Not yet. He’d have to look over his right shoulder to see the bed, but he could see it and he was satisfied with that. He let himself embrace the chill of the stone against his spine. Rey got to her feet, a little unsteady. He felt himself harden with the urge to go to her and gently press her back into the bed. The silk clung to her, now. The dark curls between her thighs obvious behind the thin fabric. Armitage swallowed the saliva that had flooded his mouth at the sight. Maker, he was almost drooling. Rey took up the length of rope and started to wreath it around them with her slender brown hands, across their chests and upper arms, just above their elbows. Her green-gold eyes met his once and he licked his lips. She looked away, focusing on her task. 

“Do it tightly,” Kylo ordered.

“Yes, alpha,” Rey answered quietly.

Armitage shuddered at her voice. Even though it wasn’t directed at him, it sent a jolt through his spine. The rope pressed into his skin, eliciting spikes of pleasure as it dragged across his nipples. Next to him he could see Kylo’s skin was already damp with sweat and his pulse was jumping at his neck. Armitage took a minute to appraise him. He quite liked Kylo tied up and sweating. Kylo just kept following Rey with his eyes.

Armitage startled at the touch of Rey’s fingers as she slid them between his chest and the rope.

“If it’s too tight,” Rey’s voice was thick, “it’s bad for circulation. I’ve seen what it does to horses.” She stepped to the side to check Kylo’s ropes, her scent wafting over him as she moved. He saw a flash of shiny black as Rey pulled Kylo’s braid free from being trapped behind him, letting it hang over his shoulder. His ears were filled with the sound of heavy breathing and he realized it was him. And Kylo. They were panting now.

She knelt in front of them, a slight crease in her brow.

_your omega is worried_

Armitage tried to shake the thought from his head, already annoyed that he could not reach for her. Encircle her warm brown wrist with his pale hand. And pull...

“Are you- I mean,” his tongue was dry in his mouth, “will you be ok?”

“Me?” Rey’s brows rose, sweat beginning to collect in full drops on her forehead. “You two look…” She got to her feet again, slowly swaying. Her hand pressed against her lower belly again. He watched her look over the things he’d chosen, hoping she liked what she saw. Needing her to. Once she recognized the water barrel she made her way over and ladled out a cup. She took a deep drink for herself, the muscles of her slender throat working in the fire light. He bit his lip to keep from moaning. He supposed Kylo couldn’t see what he could. Or was better at hiding his reaction. Armitage doubted that. Rey came padding back with a full cup and offered it to his mouth. He took a few swallows.

“Thank you,” he breathed, turning his head to wipe his mouth on his shoulder. Rey simply nodded before stepping over to Kylo. He could hear Kylo gulping the rest of it down. Rey took the cup back to the barrel and inspected some of the other things more closely.

“Will we really need all of this?” she looked from one end of the spread to the other.

“We’re not leaving. For anything.” Kylo’s voice rumbled next to him. Armitage saw her flex her spine at the sound.

_get her attention_

Armitage winced at his own instinct. _Let her choose_ , he reminded himself. _She has to choose._

“Please help yourself to anything,” Armitage managed as Rey went further in and examined the pool in the shadows. She came back stifling a yawn.

“Thank you,” she said. She went to sit back on the bed of straw, gingerly lowering herself down. She reached for the blanket and pulled it around her. He felt a mild panic as the shadows of her areola disappeared from view. Kylo grunted his own frustration. “Are you alright?” she asked. Innocently.

“It’s nothing,” Armitage said quickly. Somehow the lie was painful.

It was quiet then. Just the sound of breathing and the crackling fire. Rey appeared to be looking everywhere except at them. Then she gave an audible yawn, trying to stifle it with a fist.

_is your omega comfortable_

“You can sleep. If you want,” he told her, trying to keep his voice even.

“Are you sure?” She seemed hesitant. Afraid to offend, perhaps.

_make her comfortable_

“Of course. There’s linen,” he nodded his head at the baskets on the floor. “For the bed.”

He realized Rey was staring at him. He decided to take the opportunity.

“Omega.” He said, feeling the word in his mouth. Her eyes went wide at that. “Omega, make yourself comfortable.”

“Alpha...,” her sleepy voice trailed off, pouty bottom lip caught in her teeth. He could feel Kylo straining against the rope just as he was straining against his breeches.

“Go on,” he said gently. “Get your rest, omega.” She nodded slowly before getting up, leaving the blanket again. Armitage felt his chest go tight. From behind, her shift was soaked through, sticking to her thighs and bottom. He struggled against the rope, feeling it press further into his flesh. But Rey’s capable hands had tied strong knots. She’d brought a single sheet back and unfolded it across the bed. He got another precious view of her wet backside before she curled up at the foot of the bed, facing them, and pulled the blanket over herself again. Her eyes closed and soon her breathing became deep and even.

“This is fucking ridiculous,” Kylo whispered harshly after Rey had fallen asleep.

“Yes,” answered Armitage. And then, “She’s beautiful.”

Kylo huffed.

***

Rey woke up gasping, the muscles below her navel clenching tightly. She moved her hands to press against her womb in an attempt to stop the pain and found her shift soaked through. Sweat and slick. The sheet underneath her warm and damp. She felt dizzy. Her hair was damp with sweat and clung to her neck, sliding and slipping along her scent and mating glands. It felt good. It felt treacherously annoying.

“Rey.” Two sets of eyes glistened in the shadows, the embers of last night’s fire glowing in the pit. It was Armitage that had spoken. His calm, even tone washed over her as she sat up.

“Omega,” Kylo whispered raggedly.

“Please, I just…,” the air was thick with burnt sugar and mint. She was warm all over. No, hot. She clawed at the neckline of the shift on her chest and toed off her shoes, luxuriating in the coolness of the stone under her feet. Her body sought more and she slid off the straw and onto the ground, letting it pull the heat from her shins and forehead as she curled into herself on the floor. She was panting. Gulping down the sweet taste of _alpha_ in the air. Their smell made it impossible for her to ignore the throbbing inside her, her clit already pulsing in time with her heartbeat.

“Omega,” Kylo said more urgently. Rey looked up from the floor and saw him in the almost dark, furiously pumping himself as he looked right at her. “You- your smell,” he grunted.

Rey moaned as another cramp twisted inside her. She’d done this so many times alone that the sight of Kylo’s need was foreign to her. She knew he was an alpha. Going into rut. In front of her. _For_ her. She knew she should go to him but her hands were already doing what they’d always done during her heats, when she couldn’t resist anymore. She laid on her side on the cool stone, one hand pulling the wet silk up her legs while the other slipped between her thighs. She was sopping wet. With the skirt of her shift out of the way, she moaned as her fingers slid easily into place. Two fingers pumping into her to the knuckle while the fingers of her other hand rubbed at her clit.

“Rey,” she groaned at the sound of Armitage’s voice. “Rey, please, let me help you.” Her eyes found Armitage’s face. His eyes were wide. She saw his pale hand, palm up, reaching out to her across the stone. Kylo continued to stroke himself vigorously. Rey could hear how slippery he was in his own hands.

“Does it hurt, Rey?” Armitage asked sweetly, like he was speaking to a child. She rolled onto her back, pressing her spine into the hard stone, trying to shed more heat. Her thighs fell apart as she worked herself.

“Let me make you feel better,” Armitage’s voice was a smooth whisper. Like incense smoke drifting above her. She was so close to relief. Her calves went taught, her toes curled against the floor. “Let me take your pain away.” Rey came with a hoarse gasp, warmth suffusing through her aching body. A moment later she heard Kylo’s growl rip through the dark followed by long, loud groans.

“Fuck,” Kylo moaned.

Alone in the harem that would have been enough. She’d already be halfway asleep again. But here in the dark, surrounded by the sweet smell of _alpha_ , her body knew it could have something better. Something more. It wasn’t enough. It would never be enough.

Empty, clenching pain easily ate away at the warmth that had flooded her only seconds before. Tears welled in her eyes and she whimpered.

“I can make you feel better,” Armitage whispered. “So much better. Rey, let me do that for you.”

She sobbed as she got to her knees. On all fours she crawled the short distance to Armitage.

“Please,” she was crying. This was so much worse than the harem. “Please, alpha,” her damp fingers found his and he laced them together. She heard him begin to unfasten his breeches. Kylo was quiet, but she felt his sticky fingers stroking along her legs, heard his strained breathing. Fresh slick gushed down her thigh and a sob escaped her. The pain was clawing up her body, making her chest tight.

“Shh, come here,” Armitage’s voice was quiet and gentle. Just above a whisper. She felt his large, warm hand encircle her wrist and gently pulled her to him. She followed, crawling over his lap. She pulled her damp skirt up around her waist as she clumsily straddled Armitage, his hands coming to rest on the parts of her thighs he could reach, still bound against the pillar.

“Alpha...,” she shuddered. She wanted to ask him what she should do, but the pain was stealing her words. She tried to remember what Rose had told her. What she’d learned in the harem. “Inside,” she whined and hated herself for it. Her voice had a certain panic to it. The way she felt from hunger pains or sun stroke. He was supposed to be inside her. She clawed at the rope around his chest. Hated herself for putting it there.

“It’s alright, Rey,” she felt his breath on her face and it was sweet and herbal. His hands gently pulled at her. Another hand, Kylo’s, found her left ankle and began to gently massage it. “A little closer,” Armitage whispered. Rey scooted up on her knees, ignoring the bite of the stone under her. One warm hand squeezed her hip while the other pressed up against her belly. And then Armitage slowly dragged his thumb down into the slick hair between her legs.

Rey hiccuped with shock. She’d never been touched there by anyone else before. His thumb found her clit and gently circled it. She blinked in the darkness as her breath caught in her throat. Armitage’s other hand softly kneaded her hip.

“I’ve got you,” he was looking up at her. “I’ve got you,” he said again. Rey leaned forward, letting her forehead find his. There was movement. Vibration. Shuddering. She didn’t know if it was her or him. His thumb receded and she almost cried before Armitage’s knuckles slid along her inner thigh and something bigger was rubbing against her. She shoved her hips against him, eagerly rubbing her clit against his cock. She realized she was moaning. Loudly. She felt greedy.

“More, please, more-”, she couldn’t believe how good it felt to just rub against him. Rey threw her head back, her chest heaving with relieved breath. He pushed the head of his cock against her, he slid so easily in her wetness, and then under her until...until...he was…

“Sit, Rey. Shh, sit with me. Right here,” Armitage whispered into her neck, his long nose skimming the edge of her too sensitive scent gland, his lips caressing her collar bone. She was convulsing. It felt like getting bucked from a horse but it was just her lungs stuttering in her chest. She felt gooseflesh breakout along her back as her shoulders and neck went slack. Her head lolled as Armitage guided her down on to him, his hands gentle on her thighs, but gripping her in a way that she knew he had no intention of letting her go. It took her a moment to realize that she wasn’t moving down anymore. She was seated on his lap and he was warm and solid and twitching inside her as he breathed deeply against her neck.

She choked as she remembered to breathe and her cunt tightened around him in reflex. Gripping him from inside. A small throaty noise hummed against her chest and she brought her hands up to grip Armitage’s shoulders. She pressed her face into the top of his head, inhaling the smell of his hair. She felt that hum again.

“Rey,” Armitage gritted out. It was her name. He was saying her name. Kylo’s hand was now gripping her ankle. Almost too tight, the weight of it reminding her of the stone and the rope and the dark, warm air. Everything was pleasantly humid. The cave. Armitage’s breath against her skin. Her hair, dripping sweat on her forehead and down her back. Even the damp shift that still clung to her body.

“Rey, please,” now Armitage was moaning. Begging. Trembling under her. She tried to shift her weight to better see his face but it was like feeling him inside her all over again. She shuddered and Armitage panted, pressing his face between her breasts.

“Fuck him,” Kylo’s voice was hard and low. “Fuck him, Rey.” She clenched inside again, feeling the urgency of Kylo’s order between her thighs. Armitage groaned as she started to move. Using his shoulders to balance herself, she slowly brought her self up his length before lowering her hips again.

“Yes, Rey, yes,” Armitage hissed into her chest, his hands stiff on her thighs. Slowly up. Slowly down. It felt like… She moaned.

“It’s good, isn’t it?” Kylo sounded angry. But he didn’t want her to stop. Sweet mint caressed by roasted sugar, surging in and out of her lungs. “Tell her, Armitage. Tell her.” She could hear the spit in Kylo’s mouth. Hear his impatience. Rey managed to see his shadowy form to her left. He was stroking himself again. A vibrating shadow with dark, wet eyes.

“Yes,” Armitage breathed. “Yes,” louder this time as she continued to make her way up and down him, her thighs wet. She faintly thought his breeches must be soaked now. She went as far up on her knees to see where the end of him was and when she found it she brought herself down quickly into his lap, relishing how full she felt. Her pain was a memory. Rey felt lithe and flexible. Well rested. Happy. Warm.

“So good, Rey, you feel so good,” So warm inside. Up and down. Up and down. It felt like...It felt like riding. She closed her eyes and fat tears slid down her face to her smiling mouth. There was sunlight behind her eyelids. Gleaming off the crests of bright dunes. Taut muscles galloped under her, between her thighs as she squeezed them to go faster. Faster. She rolled her hips forward, moving in a wave to match the rhythm of the animal under her. Up and down. Forward and back. Up and down. Forward and back. Up and-

“R-r-rey!” It was a growl and a shout. A snarl. She was easily breaking the skin on Armitage’s shoulders. His forehead wet with sweat under her chin. His fingers were digging in to her thighs now, she felt his fingernails. He was shifting under her, in her. Growing thicker. Rey’s mind reeled. Part of her wanted to bolt. To pull up and push away, back to the safe distance of the bed. But the other part, the omega part, was giddy with anticipation. Hungry. Desperate for him to lock them together.

 _take his knot_

“Knot her, Armitage! Fucking-” Kylo growled over the sound of his wet fist slicking back and forth over his cock.

“Rey, please stay, please-” Armitage’s voice was haggard through his teeth.

_take his knot_

Her hips were rocking on their own, riding him on their own. She just held on to his shoulders as pure heat ignited inside her. A white flame of pleasure that licked its way from behind her navel and through her body, up her spine, between her shoulder blades, to the nape of her neck.

_take it_

“Take it!” Kylo roared. “Take it, omega!” And Armitage was thick and unmoving inside her, a gentle pulsing heat filling her as she collapsed against him, the rope barely shielding her from the heat of his chest. His hands caressed and rubbed her thighs as he shushed her erratic panting.

“Rey,” Armitage purred her name as he petted her thighs and nuzzled her breasts. “So good, Rey. So good,” while he gushed his seed into her and Kylo’s sticky hand once again sought her ankle. She reached carefully behind her and laid her damp fingers over his. Kylo’s fingers twitched but he didn’t move them away. With her other hand, she reached up to Armitage’s face and let her fingers slip down through the sweat on his brow, over his nose and cheek to the corner of his mouth, one finger caught on his bottom lip. He turned his head and kissed it.

“Stay just like this,” his soft lips said against her finger. “Just like this.”

She closed her eyes, head resting on top of his, and sighed.

_yes_

***

Kylo knew he should be exhausted but he wasn’t. He wanted to be jealous, to be angry that Rey had crawled on her hands and knees to Armitage. But he wasn’t. He wanted to know why. But he didn’t.

His hands were cramped and he’d made a mess of his breeches. Rey had fallen asleep straddling Armitage. Her soft and steady breathing whispered through the cave while Kylo’s sweat and cum went cold on his skin. He heard her shiver awake, the hissing and groaning as she pulled herself off Armitage’s cock and out of his lap. Softer versions of noises he’d made himself with Armitage. He watched as she slowly got to her feet in the dark and pulled the silk shift over her head. Watched her use it to wipe slick and cum from between her thighs before dropping it to the floor and nudging it towards the bed with a foot.

She was a quiet shadow as she felt around the darkness for the woodpile and banked up the fire. It crackled and popped back to life, licking at the fresh pale wood. He could see her again. Naked and dewy and slender and brown. She knelt on the floor and picked the leather lace from her shift and used it to tie up her hair. An enticing arrangement of curls perched on the back of her head that gently bounced with every move she made.

Then she was kneeling in front of him. He felt himself go hard again as her small hands reached for the waist of his breeches and pulled at them. He braced his hands on the stone and lifted his hips the little he could and she slid them down his legs and off his feet. She spared a glance at his erection and he broke into a sweat. Tempted to take himself in hand again until she looked up at him, blinked, and asked, “Would you like to wash up?”

All he could do was nod. She’d gotten Armitage’s breeches as well and had made a pile of their soiled clothes. She brought towels and slid those under them. She got water in a bowl and soap and a cloth and came to kneel between the two of them, still naked. Still glowing with sweat. It made him anxious. He flexed his fingers in and out of fists.

“I can manage,” Armitage said politely on his left and the small sounds of water and washing filled the cave. Rey busied herself with changing the bed linen. He studied the lines of her stretching out over the bed in the firelight. When Armitage was done, Rey went and rinsed the bowl and brought a fresh cloth and water and sat them next to him.

“Here,” she said and almost stepped away. Almost. Because he had her ankle again and she was looking down at him while he looked at her. Her green gold eyes. The pout of her lips. The curves and shadows of her small breasts. Her waist and wide hips. Her thighs, firm with muscle. The curve of her calves from her dirty knees to her ankles. His pale hand on her brown skin. Her ankle flexed in his hand as she sank to her knees beside him. Without looking him in the face, she began to wash his hands, scrubbing the cum and sweat from between his fingers. Then she was wiping at his thighs, getting closer and closer, but not quite-

He snatched her hand, clutching her wrist and felt her pulse under his fingers. Rey whimpered. But she didn’t balk. She didn’t resist as he took the wet cloth from her hand and tossed it in the bowl of water.

“Kylo?” Armitage asked from somewhere. But that wasn’t important right now. She was close and he needed to keep her there.

He took Rey’s hand and wrapped it around his cock. Her other hand planted itself on the floor to balance herself.

“Omega,” he said, as he felt himself get harder. Worked himself roughly with her small hand. She breathed out of her nose, jaw set tight. Her eyes fixed on their hands. Honey and saffron swept over him.

He _was_ tired. Tired of waiting.

“Are you ready for me, omega?” He watched her close her eyes and shudder. She slowly licked her lips and Kylo felt his breath catch in his chest. “Look at me, omega.” And she did. Immediately. Her bottom lip caught between her teeth.

“Are you ready for me?” he repeated. She nodded, keeping her wet eyes on his. “Show me.” He let her take his hand in both of hers as she sat up on her knees over his thigh. He kept his eyes locked on hers as he felt his fingers brush against damp, coarse curls and then hot, wet, slick folds. A noise whispered past Rey’s teeth into the air between them and he could feel his balls tighten. On instinct, he let his fingers slip further until they were slipping up, inside her.

Rey closed her eyes and he felt free to look. To see where his hand was. What is was doing. Pumping her with two fingers while she swayed on her knees, panting. It made him grip his cock again. He flexed against the rope, wanting to push her down and put his mouth where his fingers were. But he couldn’t. So he pulled them away and Rey opened her eyes with a whine. She searched his face before she tracked his hand instead. He bent his head and brought his fingers to his mouth. He closed his eyes and tasted her, stroking himself at a slow pace. Sweet and fresh. Rey and Armitage. Mixed together.

“Alpha.” A plea. He opened his eyes. Her body was tense. She was touching herself as she watched him. “Please, I need you to…”

He reached for her again and she eagerly shimmied up on her scuffed knees. Her fingers found the back of his sweaty neck as she straddled him. His fingers found her slick cunt again. She arched back in shock and he strangled his cock with his other hand. This was not the defiant young woman from the clearing. Or the tense girl who shared his table before darting off to dance. This was the supplicant who had quelled his fury with a lick to his neck. Open and waiting to swallow his rage the way her sopping slit was swallowing his fingers. The way it would swallow his cock.

Something like terror settled in his chest. _What are you doing to me, omega?_

“Are you ready to be fucked again?” He hooked his fingers inside her, bringing her closer and Rey gave a broken sob. A dark nipple quivered in front of his face and he greedily took it into his mouth, craving the taste of her warm skin. He palmed and squeezed his sac as he slowly brought his teeth together on the underside of her breast. He spoke into her ribs. “Are you, omega?”

“Yes,” Rey hissed with her eyes squeezed shut. And then a grunt from Armitage, no longer keeping quiet. Kylo stroked himself in earnest knowing Armitage was doing the same.

“Say.” He thrusted his fingers into her as deeply as he could.

“It.” He thrusted again.

“Yes, alpha!” Fresh tears spilled down her face and he wanted to lick them. He wanted to taste every drop on her. Her tears. Her cum. Armitage. All of her filthy salt and delicious honey.

“Fuck yourself on my cock, omega. I want my husband to hear you.” Armitage gave a loud sigh while Rey’s hips bucked forward. The feeling of her wet lips on the head of his cock was blinding. He grabbed for her thighs, digging his fingers in, and pulled her down on his cock until she was flush against his lap.

Finally. Finally he was inside her.

Rey rolled her hips towards him and away from him in a maddening circle. Up and down. Forward and back. The sweet, hot sheath of her squeezed him in a way he’d never known before. Her nails were pin pricks of light at the back of his skull. Her slick gushed over and between his thighs, dripping down his sac and pooling on the towel under him. Her warm breath fell over his brow as she panted and moaned into his hair. All he could see were her breasts on either side of his face as he dragged his nose up and down her sternum, rubbing his face against her, tasting her sweat.

_make her cum_

He remembered the noises she’d made on Armitage’s lap and he put his palms on either side of him so he could thrust up into her as her hips kept rhythm. The rope bit into his chest and stomach, but it only pushed him further. He was snarling as he fought to fuck into her and then she was slowing down and pulling back, looking him in the face. Hazel eyes cutting through him.

She’d stilled almost completely as she swept a hand over his forehead, pushing hair and sweat from his face.

_knot her_

He felt his teeth clench as he tried to get her to ride him again with shallow thrusts of his cock. Her face drew close and he drew still.

“Alpha,” she whispered, as she brought her plump lips to the side of his neck and licked his gland.

Kylo was swollen. So swollen inside her. His knot throbbing and pulsing, hot and firm inside the perfect wet heat that was Rey’s tight cunt. He felt himself twitch as surge after surge of his cum gushed into her. She trembled in turn and Kylo knew she could feel every hot drop he gave up. His hands had found her thighs again and he was lazily rubbing circles into them. Kneading the tension out of the muscle as she sat collapsed against him, face buried in his neck. Her panting breath fluttering over his scent gland, luring his eyes closed.

He reached forward more, wanting to wrap his arms around her and hold her on his knot. Run his fingers down her spine. Sink them into her curls. And then he was holding her. Easily exploring the bones of her back and the fine hair at the nape of her neck.

Kylo opened his eyes and saw Armitage standing over Rey’s shoulder before he felt the slack rope in his lap.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back!  
> Short, but very, very sweet.

Past the point of self control, Armitage took himself in hand as he listened to the sound of Rey impaling herself on Kylo’s cock. An odd sort of jealousy, or possessiveness, wound itself low in his belly as the head of his cock appeared and disappeared into his fist. Desperation to make Rey moan, to know her pleasure was his doing, beat its wings against his ribs. And a shuddering fear that it was not him forcing deep growls out of Kylo’s chest sat in his throat. It was a potent mix of fear and desire that pushed him up to the edge, but just as he anticipated spilling onto his own taut thighs he was choking. That suffocating smell again from the clearing. When Rey had chased after Kylo and licked his neck to subdue him.

But this time he was too close. His erection forgotten, Armitage struggled against the rope, cold panic licking up his spine. His lungs were too shallow and his vision spotted, but he found the strength to twist and writhe against the hard stone and biting rope. Finally, one length and then another slipped up over his shoulders and soon he was crawling free of the rope, gulping air as he stumbled towards the cave’s entrance. His propriety caught up with him and kept him from walking out into the dawn naked, but he knelt as close to the entrance as he dared, drinking in the cool breeze that found its way to him and the small notes of early morning birdsong.

His braid had come undone and a mess of his hair spilled over one shoulder. Armitage crouched on his haunches and ran his fingers through his tresses before deciding to risk making his way back inside. He stretched, enjoying the feeling of blood rushing back into his legs before he tentatively turned back into the cave. Little by little. The suffocating smell still lingered, but it was now easily cut through with warm honey and sweat and cum. At least Kylo’s was easily recognizable.

Rey was half asleep, snoring softly with her head on Kylo’s shoulder while he held her there. Thick, long arms cradling her, fingers pressed into her spine and ribs. Gleaming with sweat. His first instinct was to sink his fingers into Rey’s hair and drag her onto the bed so he could be inside her again. But Armitage couldn’t bring himself to do that. He knew he’d hurt her if he tried to move her while Kylo was still knotted inside her. Something bitter slid up his throat and he swallowed it down. That’s when he saw Kylo’s eyes on him, bottom lip trembling, dark eyes imploring, his fingers holding Rey just a little more tightly. And then, almost a trick of the firelight, an imperceptible shake of his head.

 _Please_ , said Kylo’s eyes. _No_ , said his full lips. His scent suddenly stringent with nerves.

Armitage had never seen Kylo beg before. It was stunning. Armitage backed up, his heels finding the straw bed behind him. The need to take Rey into his own arms and settle himself deep between her thighs was strong, but he bit it down with minute after minute of looking into Kylo’s strained face. He couldn’t promise himself he wouldn’t fight Kylo for her once she was out of his lap. But for now, he could wait. He could give Kylo these few moments longer. And giving felt good.

***

Rey felt like she was wetting herself and it startled her awake. Big brown eyes blinked back at her and she realized it was Kylo’s soft cock and hot cum dripping out of her. She felt good. Warm and sleepy. She could feel Kylo’s arms around her. Where they belonged.

_Wait._

She took hold of his shoulders and began to push herself to her feet when arms found their way around her waist and chest, dragging her backwards. She saw Kylo’s face twist and contort as he lunged forward, the rope falling to the floor. His wide hands took her by the legs under her knees. She twisted and saw that it was Armitage who was trying to take her. Both of them had gotten loose somehow and now they were pulling her between them. While Kylo growled and postured with his height and muscle, Armitage was simply tenacious. Locking his arms around her and keeping his center of gravity low, refusing to cede one step to Kylo. It hurt where they grabbed and pulled at her, but dully. Somewhere outside the fog of her heat, she knew she’d be bruised and sore. That she would rage at being treated like a bone between wild dogs. Within her heat, a giddy voice was biting her lip, trying to hide a smile. Trying to stifle a giggle.

The Alpha Kings of Arkanis were naked and sweaty and fighting over a dirty omega stable girl from Jakku. The same girl they disdained and turned their noses up at just yesterday.

As Rey was jostled between the two one little giggle escaped. Then another. Until finally she was laughing in between ragged breaths, her chest burning.

They paid her no mind.

“Armitage! Kylo! Put me down!” She choked out between peals of laughter.

They didn’t listen.

She steadied her breath as best she could.

“Put! Me! Down!” Kylo maybe looked at her for a second before resuming his pull on her. Armitage continued to hold his ground, starting to breathe harshly down on her neck, making her mating gland tingle. Rey studied the way Kylo’s large hands gripped her and then the way Armitage’s arms were caged around her torso. Both of them so pale against her own brown skin. The contrast was mesmerizing.

_they want you_

_let them have you_

She shook her omega instinct off for a few seconds more, judging how far off the floor she was and if she could…  
Rey twisted her hips at the same time as she let her weight go dead in Armitage’s arms. Kylo lost his grip on her legs and fell back against the stone pillar he’d been tied to. Armitage succumbed to gravity and Rey didn’t feel bad using most of him to break her own fall, although she’d certainly scraped a knee and maybe broke a nail. She got to her feet before Armitage could wrap himself back around her and started for the bed.

Kylo was scowling, braid askew and coming loose, unsure of how she’d wriggled out of his grasp. A look she’d seen on Plutt’s face more than a few times. She didn’t dwell on it. Armitage was simply stunned. Blue eyes wide and red hair falling around his shoulders as he got to his feet. They were both tall and sweating and panting in the fire light. Eyes locked on her, threatening hunger.

_let them take you_

Rey backed up on to the bed, felt the straw beneath the fresh sheets rasp and sink under her weight. One knee and then another.

_let them_

Kylo stepped closer and gave Armitage a sideways look under his scowl as he drew even with him. Armitage returned a glare of his own as they matched each other step for step. Towards the bed.

_give yourself_

Rey settled back on her calves, kneeling. She looked into brown eyes and blue eyes and back again. She felt dizzy. Her muscles rippled between her legs and fresh slick seeped down her thighs.

_show them_

She sat back further, putting her legs out in front of her, her knees up to her chest. Kylo closed in on her left, one knee on the bed, a hand falling on her shoulder. Armitage knelt on the foot of the bed, his free hand reaching for her leg. The empty pain was back, blooming inside her. Demanding to be filled. Rey laid back, looking at the fire light playing across the ceiling of the cave. Inhaled melting sugar and sweet water. 

A hand grasped the base of her skull. Long fingers wrapped around her ankle.

“Alphas,” she whispered. “Don’t hurt each other. Please.”

She closed her eyes and let her legs fall open.

***

This was so much better and so much worse than being tied down. The part of himself that could stand at attention on the practice field for hours, completing drill after drill, saw an order in taking “turns”. Pored over the situation, like he would maps and scout reports, and confirmed it was Armitage’s “turn” now. That Kylo need only wait his “turn”. But that part was small and quiet compared to who he’d been when Rey straddled his lap and sank herself onto him. Who he was now. An alpha with an omega who was still dripping his seed. Who wanted him. Chose him. He didn’t recognize this part of himself. But it felt good. Right. He didn’t know how to be a good son. Or a king. He knew how to be with Armitage. He knew how to hold a sword and wound flesh with it. He knew how to lead men to victory and slaughter. And yet this part he didn’t know, knew him.

So easy, so simple, to brace his back against the stone wall and pull Rey against him where she belonged. Arms wrapped around her trim middle, waiting to be round with his child. The world righted itself, shifted into order, as her soft, warm skin met his chest and her silky curls brushed against his neck and face. Tickling and hypnotizing. His newly throbbing erection nestled in the cleft of her perfectly round bottom. Weeping cum onto the small of her back. Peace manifested itself in the smell of honey and saffron that emanated from the slightly textured patches of skin on Rey’s neck. And there. Just in the shadow between their bodies, between her shoulders, clinging more closely to the left of her spine than the right. 

_taste_

Like knowing the eyes of the dead from the living. Old blood from fresh. He knew to press his mouth there. To kiss. To lick. Because his omega had asked him not to hurt Armitage. And this. This was the only thing strong enough to distract him from what he could hear through Rey’s moans, but couldn’t see: Armitage fucking into her.

Armitage panting.

_suck_

Armitage thrusting. Pressing Rey further back.

_smell_

Armitage bucking. Pushing Rey into Kylo’s chest. His dick.

_lick_

Armitage groaning. Stuttering. Still.

“Kylo.”

He opened his eyes, mouth still clinging to Rey’s mating gland. When had he closed them? Over Rey’s shoulder once more, Armitage’s eyes so blue around his wide, dark pupils. Red gold hair sticking to the sweat on his forehead, and neck, and shoulders. Toned, pale arms braced on either side of both he and Rey’s waists. The muscles of his throat working as he swallowed. Unsure.

“Help me with her.” Armitage was knotted inside Rey and afraid of crushing her between them.  
“Please.”

Rey’s small brown hand appeared, fingers reaching out and sweeping strands of hair from Armitage’s face. Tucking them behind his ear. Drifting across his cheekbone to his pink lips and pressing in. Kylo watched his shoulders shudder and his eyes close as he sucked two of Rey’s fingers into his mouth. She pulled them away and turned her head up at Kylo, soft curls brushing across his shoulder, making him shiver. Rey, parting her own lips, licking the taste of Armitage on her fingers. Then bringing her fingers to his mouth. The smell sweet and foreign. Her fingers pushing, gently, past his teeth, against his tongue. The taste. Their taste.

“Please.” Rey’s voice. “Alpha.”

And Kylo eased Rey down between his thighs, Armitage following carefully. Until Rey and Armitage were laying on the bed, and Armitage could pull her onto his chest, her golden legs draped over his narrow hips. Her hand reaching for him again.

“Alpha. Please.” Kylo lowered himself down at Armitage’s side. The two of them taking up the bed easily as they laid side by side. Like their bed back in the tent. There would be more room in their bed at Supremacy. Plenty of room for Rey to lay between them. Laying on his back, Kylo turned his head and looked at Armitage. His eyes were roaming the top of Rey’s head on his chest, one arm draped around her back. And Rey was looking at Kylo, hazel eyes knowing something he didn’t, as she reached out and rested her arm across his chest. Her lips parted and she gave a little sigh.

“Thank you,” she said, her fingers curling against his chest. He reached for her hand, the same one she’d shared between their lips, and pressed it flat against his chest. Against his heart beat.


End file.
